Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Sociol.--Paris 7, 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 328-332. Bibliogr. des oeuvres de N. Elias p. 325-327.

In public health working in a less medical and more preventative way by focussing on the wider determinants of health, inter-sectoral collaboration, and evidence based practice have been advocated as ways to raise the health status of the population. In recent years, the idea of contact with nature to enhance health has come to the fore as one way to tackle current public health challenges: for example, diabetes, overweight and obesity, chronic liver disease, hypertension and mental health problems. Yet little is known about how this idea has diffused through the interdependent figurations of researchers, policy makers and into use through the actions of people in local organisations. The processes connecting these interdependent figurations are complex and, in the case of contact with nature, are not well understood. This is the research problem this thesis seeks to address, that is to say, the evidence into action process of an idea. The theoretical perspective of Norbert Elias is used throughout the thesis to analyse the diffusion process of the idea. Elias’s work is concerned with long term processes in human history; in adherence with his approach to sociological inquiry a historical context going back more than three generations provides the backdrop for the empirical work. An examination of the context illuminated the significance of the decade of the 1970s onwards to the present use of the idea of contact with nature in public health; notably the shift in discourse about hazards, risk and threats from nature to one of health enhancement. Norbert Elias’s own thinking and discourse about contact with nature to enhance health is used as a touchstone for the analysis. The empirical data in the thesis is generated through mixed methods, principally bibliometrics and content analysis, to reveal the diffusion and development of the idea over time and to show the way that the idea is framed when used by researchers, policy makers and by people within organisations. An Eliasian approach to case study methodology is utilised. Sub-study 1 revealed that empirical research literature about the idea emerged in the 1970s and that the number of publications per annum increased year on year until 2005. The empirical research was generated by researchers located across several continents and from different disciplines. Early researchers into the idea investigated the psychological benefits whilst latterly epidemiological studies have come to the fore. Sub-study 2 showed that the idea was taken up widely by policy makers in four government departments in England from 2000, with a peak in 2011. There were more references to the idea in the policy documents of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs than other government departments; the references of this department took an ecosystem services stance. Sub-study 3 showed that during July to October 2013 and within Greater Manchester, 36 organisations were providing and/or promoting activities which involved the idea of contact with nature on their websites. Of these 36 organisations, 16 (44%) were conservation/wildlife based agencies whose use of the idea included the pursuit of their own agendas and purposes. ix An analysis of the results, using the theoretical perspective of Norbert Elias, shows the involvement of many figurations of interdependent individuals, and the long term, largely unplanned, and non-linear character of the diffusion process. The empirical findings reflect the transdisciplinary nature of the research, inter-sectoral collaboration across government departments within policy, and the adoption of the idea outside of the traditional health service. People and thinking from the environment sector have greatly influenced the diffusion and development of the idea, and their involvement has widened the scope and form of public health action.

Nesta tese, traço as principais transformações ocorridas na percepção e sensibilidade sociais a respeito da violência sexual contra crianças e adolescentes ao longo do século XX no Brasil. Em primeiro lugar, apresento a legislação nacional e os principais acordos internacionais (Convenções). Em seguida, discuto o contexto intelectual que reflete a sensibilidade dos diferentes períodos e que, de algum modo, acabou por influenciar as definições legais. Para tanto, analisarei algumas decorrências do positivismo na área médica e jurídica, as discussões em torno da prostituição e da polícia de costumes, sua atuação em conjunto com assistentes sociais e, por fim, a visão das organizações não governamentais e dos psicólogos. No capítulo seguinte, analiso alguns movimentos sociais internacionais – ou ofensivas civilizatórias –, cujo objetivo era combater a violência sexual, e seus desdobramentos no país. Por fim, resgato o que foi publicado em um jornal de grande circulação, O Estado de S. Paulo, a fim de identificar mudanças nas informações transmitidas ao público leigo (leitores), nos tipos de crimes sexuais noticiados e na abordagem ao tema. O argumento defendido é que a violência sexual contra crianças e adolescentes não era um problema desconhecido do público leigo, tampouco de especialistas como médicos, juristas, policiais e assistentes sociais. Era, entretanto, entendido como um problema esporádico e relacionado a questões morais. Aproximando-se o final do século, nas mãos das organizações não governamentais nacionais e internacionais, a violência sexual passou a ser entendida como um “fenômeno”, algo recorrente e que deveria ser estudado, quantificado e analisado cientificamente. O que era noticiado casualmente passou a sê-lo recorrentemente, chegando às manchetes dos jornais. A dinâmica que engendrou essas mudanças é encontrada na diminuição da desigualdade na balança de poder entre os sexos e em um aumento na distância social entre adultos e crianças – cada vez mais entendidas como pessoas com necessidades específicas e que devem ser protegidas e cuidadas. A abordagem teórica é a sociologia processual de Norbert Elias. A tese contém ainda um excurso referente às transformações no tocante à violência sexual na Irlanda. As diferenças e semelhanças entre as transformações ocorridas na Irlanda e no Brasil são utilizadas para elucidar os processos sociais que levaram o tema da violência sexual ao centro das atenções no último quartel do século XX. / In this thesis, I describe the main changes in social sensibility towards child sexual violence in 20th century Brazil. First of all, I present the national law and the main international agreements in regard to sexual violence. Following, I will show some expert discourses that reflect different sensibilities over this topic and that, in some way, influenced legal definitions. In order to make this discussion, the following will be analysed: some influences of positivism in the medical and legal areas; some queries and opinions on prostitution and “manners police”; its work along with social workers; and, at last, the understandings of NGOs and psychologists. In the next chapter, I analyse some international social movements – also called civilising offensives – that intended to combat sexual violence, and its consequences in Brazil. Last, it will be shown what one of the most important daily newspapers in the country has published in this connection. Daily news will be used to discuss changes in the information published, in the kind of sexual crime depicted and how it is discussed. The main argument of this work is that child sexual violence was not an invisible problem to lay people nor to experts as physicians, people working in the legal system, police and social workers. Nevertheless, it was seen as an occasional problem related to morality. Towards the end of the 20th century, especially because of national and international NGOs, sexual violence came to be seen as a very recurrent problem and a topic that should be studied, quantified and scientifically analysed. What was occasionally portrayed in the media became a very common issue, reaching the head-lines. These changes can be explained by the shift in the balance of power between the sexes in favour of women and an increase in the social distance between adults and children, now understood as people with special need that should be protected and cared for. The theoretical approach is Norbert Elias’s process sociology. The thesis contains also an excursus, discussing changes in child sexual violence in 20th century Ireland. Differences and similarities between what happened in Ireland and in Brazil will be used to discuss social processes that lead sexual violence to be a topic of great concern in the last quarter of the century.

Nesta tese, traço as principais transformações ocorridas na percepção e sensibilidade sociais a respeito da violência sexual contra crianças e adolescentes ao longo do século XX no Brasil. Em primeiro lugar, apresento a legislação nacional e os principais acordos internacionais (Convenções). Em seguida, discuto o contexto intelectual que reflete a sensibilidade dos diferentes períodos e que, de algum modo, acabou por influenciar as definições legais. Para tanto, analisarei algumas decorrências do positivismo na área médica e jurídica, as discussões em torno da prostituição e da polícia de costumes, sua atuação em conjunto com assistentes sociais e, por fim, a visão das organizações não governamentais e dos psicólogos. No capítulo seguinte, analiso alguns movimentos sociais internacionais – ou ofensivas civilizatórias –, cujo objetivo era combater a violência sexual, e seus desdobramentos no país. Por fim, resgato o que foi publicado em um jornal de grande circulação, O Estado de S. Paulo, a fim de identificar mudanças nas informações transmitidas ao público leigo (leitores), nos tipos de crimes sexuais noticiados e na abordagem ao tema. O argumento defendido é que a violência sexual contra crianças e adolescentes não era um problema desconhecido do público leigo, tampouco de especialistas como médicos, juristas, policiais e assistentes sociais. Era, entretanto, entendido como um problema esporádico e relacionado a questões morais. Aproximando-se o final do século, nas mãos das organizações não governamentais nacionais e internacionais, a violência sexual passou a ser entendida como um “fenômeno", algo recorrente e que deveria ser estudado, quantificado e analisado cientificamente. O que era noticiado casualmente passou a sê-lo recorrentemente, chegando às manchetes dos jornais. A dinâmica que engendrou essas mudanças é encontrada na diminuição da desigualdade na balança de poder entre os sexos e em um aumento na distância social entre adultos e crianças – cada vez mais entendidas como pessoas com necessidades específicas e que devem ser protegidas e cuidadas. A abordagem teórica é a sociologia processual de Norbert Elias. A tese contém ainda um excurso referente às transformações no tocante à violência sexual na Irlanda. As diferenças e semelhanças entre as transformações ocorridas na Irlanda e no Brasil são utilizadas para elucidar os processos sociais que levaram o tema da violência sexual ao centro das atenções no último quartel do século XX. / In this thesis, I describe the main changes in social sensibility towards child sexual violence in 20th century Brazil. First of all, I present the national law and the main international agreements in regard to sexual violence. Following, I will show some expert discourses that reflect different sensibilities over this topic and that, in some way, influenced legal definitions. In order to make this discussion, the following will be analysed: some influences of positivism in the medical and legal areas; some queries and opinions on prostitution and “manners police"; its work along with social workers; and, at last, the understandings of NGOs and psychologists. In the next chapter, I analyse some international social movements – also called civilising offensives – that intended to combat sexual violence, and its consequences in Brazil. Last, it will be shown what one of the most important daily newspapers in the country has published in this connection. Daily news will be used to discuss changes in the information published, in the kind of sexual crime depicted and how it is discussed. The main argument of this work is that child sexual violence was not an invisible problem to lay people nor to experts as physicians, people working in the legal system, police and social workers. Nevertheless, it was seen as an occasional problem related to morality. Towards the end of the 20th century, especially because of national and international NGOs, sexual violence came to be seen as a very recurrent problem and a topic that should be studied, quantified and scientifically analysed. What was occasionally portrayed in the media became a very common issue, reaching the head-lines. These changes can be explained by the shift in the balance of power between the sexes in favour of women and an increase in the social distance between adults and children, now understood as people with special need that should be protected and cared for. The theoretical approach is Norbert Elias’s process sociology. The thesis contains also an excursus, discussing changes in child sexual violence in 20th century Ireland. Differences and similarities between what happened in Ireland and in Brazil will be used to discuss social processes that lead sexual violence to be a topic of great concern in the last quarter of the century.

This thesis is a sociogenetic investigation of terrorism that has been directed against Britain since the late eighteenth century. One of its most fundamental aims is to help lay the foundations of a figurational approach to the study of terrorism. Accordingly, I seek to answer two core and interrelated questions and apply the findings to develop an understanding of the processes and relationships that have contributed to the emergence of home-grown ‘jihadist terrorism’ in Britain. Those questions are: i) Under what figurational conditions have the concepts of terrorism and terrorist developed, in sociogenetic terms, since they were first coined during the first French Revolution in the late eighteenth century? ii) Under what figurational conditions do people act according to various designations of terrorism? In order to develop answers to these questions several kinds of terrorism figurations related to Britain are examined. The first three chapters are dedicated to exploring the research on terrorism that has grown in recent decades. Much of it fails to develop an understanding of terrorism that has sufficient detachment, and consequently can help, in some cases, to perpetuate terrorism figurations. Subsequent chapters move away from these mainstream approaches and show how terrorism figurations have developed in Britain from the time the concept ‘terrorism’ was first coined during the French Revolution. The core findings relate to how terrorism developed in antithesis to the concept of civilisation, and emerged as part of complex inter- and intra-state relationships and established-outsider figurations. As part of these processes, functional democratisation played a key role both in Britain and in Britain’s relations to other countries. Finally, I show that these processes have been central to the development of the habituses and identities of the July 7 2005 London bombers.

This study combines moral panic with the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias to explore how climate change has developed as a social problem. The central argument is that,through combining the short-term focus of moral panic with the long-term focus of Elias, we can examine the interplay between planned and unplanned developments in both the perception and reality of climate change. The first part of the research consisted of discourse analysis of a variety of different texts from 1800 to the present. These were used to explore the long-term development of climatechange as emerging from an ecological civilizing process. The second stage of the research related these developments to moral panics, arguing that the emergence of climate change can only be understood by exploring the interplay between long-term processes and short-term campaigns. The third part of the research explored these historical developments at the individual level, examining the notion of individual ecological civilizing processes. 15 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with climate change ‘activists’ and ‘non-activists’, comparing how their biographical developments related to ecological civilizing processes and moral panics. The final part of the research compared climate change with five other empirical examples of moral panics, to explore the civilizing and decivilizing processes and civilizing offensives that occur before, during, and after the panics. The central aim was to demonstrate the complexity of moral panics, and to aid in the reformulation of the concepts of moral panic and decivilization. Through a synthesis of Elias and moral panic, as applied to the example of climate change, this study aimed to: critically assess the development of climate change; to reassess the concept of decivilization and the relation between civilizing processes and offensives; and to reformulate the concept of moral panic, including suggesting how moral panic research ought to be undertaken.

This thesis is about using rather than applying Norbert Elias’s conceptual ideas, and its analytical procedure employs a ‘fair play’ approach to theorists and theory. This is put to use regarding British independent funeral firms by conceiving these as a figuration developing over the long-term, and exploring the accounts of funeral directors placed in dialogue with Elias’s ideas. The thesis examines how the key Eliasian concepts of figuration, sociogenesis, habitus and de/civilising processes play out in context, including over-time developments within the British funeral industry. Its focus is ‘thinking with Elias’ about such matters in relation to the everyday working practices of independent funeral directors. Chapter One introduces Elias’s key conceptual ideas. In beginning its ‘fair play’ analysis it discusses criticisms, debates and uses of his work and explores the substantive literature on death, funerals and the British funeral industry. Building on this, Chapter Two considers analytically the process of methodologically trying out potential approaches to thinking with Elias around one of his core ideas, figuration. Departing from Elias’s retrospective approach, it chases the independent funeral firm figuration as it unfolds in the present. Using figuration in thinking with Elias sets the stage for further analytical use of Eliasian concepts in subsequent chapters. Chapter Three explores how sociogenesis works by examining intersections and departures between the funeral directors’ accounts and the Eliasian view of long-term development. Regarding sociogenesis, the ‘actual’ processes of death-related social change were not of central interest to the funeral directors, who were more concerned with ensuring their firms’ persistence. Chapter Four engages with Elias’s ideas about habitus and the we-identities of the independent directors, shared belief and behaviour traditions within and between firms and the directors, and also sources of conflict. Core to this is the emphasis on traditions, although these are present-time ‘invented’ around the priority of remaining in business. Chapter Five presents Elias’s theory of the de/civilising process as his ‘bigger picture’ of social change, and its analysis engages and contrasts this with the independent funeral directors’ accounts of the bigger picture in discussing perceived trends. They respond to changes as these are unfolding, and explain over-time matters of stasis and change as they experience them in ways that challenge Eliasian thinking. Chapter Six discusses the main contributions of the thesis. In using theory and thinking with Elias rather than against him, I have aimed to be a fair player in doing sociology. First, my thesis recognises the importance of context and that how concepts play out in ‘real’ life will vary significantly. Second, in adopting a fair play approach, the thesis provides a detailed empirical example of how to evaluate theorists on their own terms by following in their suggestions and engaging with their ideas in contextual and reflexive ways. It has neither replicated nor reproduced an Eliasian study, but instead demonstrated how actually using it in a context will play out. Third, the thesis has used the Eliasian key concepts of figuration, sociogenesis, habitus and de/civilising in a present-day setting so as to examine how these unfold in the present and can be explored through people’s accounts. Fourth, it analyses the accounts of the independent funeral directors in a fair play way and establishes that their ideas work as theory, as exploring the dialogue between Elias and the funeral directors has shown. Overall, the thesis is a reply to Elias’s call for sociologists to think for themselves, engage with and expand upon ideas and settings to hand, and to pursue the actual processes at work in society.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux forces sociales qui président à la structuration des systèmes monétaires nationaux. À travers l’exemple de l’histoire monétaire et financière coloniale canadienne (1654-1871) il s’agit de comprendre la mécanique et la logique de l’uniformisation des pratiques monétaires de compte et de paiement sur un territoire donné, en particulier suite à l’immixtion et à la circulation d’une monnaie allogène - dollarisation -. Durant cette période on assiste à un « basculement comptable » de la socio-économie coloniale au profit d’une unité de compte privée et d’origine allogène, le dollar. Cette victoire du « privé » contre le « public » procède de la formation d’un puissant consensus sur la monnaie, qui s’apparente à une énergie sociale endogène dont il s’agit de faire la sociologie historique dynamique. Bâtissant sur l’acquis institutionnaliste nous nous concentrons sur les processus d’adhésion et de luttes sociales. Avec les outils offerts par la sociologie interdépendantiste de Norbert Elias nous proposons de penser la genèse historique des monnaies à partir de « régimes d’interdépendances » interne et externe au système monétaire. Enfn nous nous intéressons à la dimension qualitative de ce processus en regardant le rôle des sphères d’échanges, des conversions et des interfaces dans la circulation des monnaies. / This work focuses on social forces that govern national monetary systems structuring process. Using the example of the Canadian monetary history (1654-1871) it is to understand the standardization of monetary practices of account and payment in a given area, especially following the penetration and circulation of a foreign currency - dollarization -. During this period an « accounting switch » occured which saw a private and foreign unit of account - the dollar - replacing the official sterling english system. This movement proceeds from the formation of a strong private consensus on money which we assimilate to an endogenous social energy. We then build on recent institutional approach of money to make a dynamic historical sociology analysis of Canadian monetary history, focusing on social conflicts and collective trust building. Using Norbert Elias genetic and dynamic sociology we think the national monetary system building in terms of internal and external interdependances. We finally point out the importance of conversions and interfaces behind monetary circulation.

O percurso que nesta dissertação se pretende seguir consiste em buscar elementos no pensamento de Norbert Elias, principalmente em sua teoria do Processo Civilizador, aliando a ênfase no caráter figuracional da dinâmica social (sem dicotomia entre indivíduo e sociedade, mas uma percepção de não separação entre ambos), para pensar sobre a constituição emocional dos sujeitos em interação. Ao definir as emoções como aspecto-chave a ser mapeado na obra do referido autor, procurar-se-á direcionar um olhar especial sobre os pontos dolorosos do processo constante que é amadurecer, tornar-se um indivíduo autossuficiente no estágio em que vivemos da modernidade, lançando mão ainda de autores que figuraram entre os referenciais teóricos do autor alemão. / The route that this dissertation intends to follow is to find elements in the thought of Norbert Elias, primarily in his theory of the Civilizing Process, combining the emphasis on figurational character of social dynamics (no dichotomy between individual and society, but a perception of not separation of both), to think about the emotional makeup of individuals in interaction. By defining emotions as key aspect to be mapped in the work of that author search will direct a special look on the pain points of the process constant that is mature, become self-sufficient an individual stage of modernity in which we live, throwing hand still authors who were among the theoretical frameworks of the German author.

O percurso que nesta dissertação se pretende seguir consiste em buscar elementos no pensamento de Norbert Elias, principalmente em sua teoria do Processo Civilizador, aliando a ênfase no caráter figuracional da dinâmica social (sem dicotomia entre indivíduo e sociedade, mas uma percepção de não separação entre ambos), para pensar sobre a constituição emocional dos sujeitos em interação. Ao definir as emoções como aspecto-chave a ser mapeado na obra do referido autor, procurar-se-á direcionar um olhar especial sobre os pontos dolorosos do processo constante que é amadurecer, tornar-se um indivíduo autossuficiente no estágio em que vivemos da modernidade, lançando mão ainda de autores que figuraram entre os referenciais teóricos do autor alemão. / The route that this dissertation intends to follow is to find elements in the thought of Norbert Elias, primarily in his theory of the Civilizing Process, combining the emphasis on figurational character of social dynamics (no dichotomy between individual and society, but a perception of not separation of both), to think about the emotional makeup of individuals in interaction. By defining emotions as key aspect to be mapped in the work of that author search will direct a special look on the pain points of the process constant that is mature, become self-sufficient an individual stage of modernity in which we live, throwing hand still authors who were among the theoretical frameworks of the German author.