‘Testing’ Elias : aspects of Violence Viewed in Long-Term Perspective

This ‘polemical’ paper is concerned with ‘testing’ key elements of Elias’s theory of ‘civilising processes’ in a non-positivistic sense. More particularly, Elias’s undifferentiated concept of violence is broken down into ten categories, some of which are then used to shed light on war, genocide, crime, punishment and sport seen in long-term perspective. The work of a range of authors who are more or less critical of Elias is next considered and the conclusion reached that, contrary to a common opinion, far from being falsified by their arguments and evidence, Elias’s work is vindicated in most major respects. It, thus, represents what he himself regarded as a breakthrough.