Leading the torch

the relevance of Norbert Elias in troubled times

Abstract

Review of: DELMOTTE, Florence; GÓRNICKA, Barbara (org.). Norbert Elias in troubled times. Figurational approaches to the problems of the twenty-first century. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. (Série “Palgrave Studies on Norbert Elias”, v. 3).

Norbert Elias in troubled times, published in 2021 by Palgrave McMillan and still unpublished in Portuguese, is a volume in the Palgrave Studies on Norbert Elias collection, which has been gaining a prominent role for studies of the author’s theory. The work brings together articles proposing readings of current issues based on Elias’s figurational and process sociology, written by authors from different parts of the world who deal with local and global problems, and who share the experience of being part of what can be read as a moment of civilizational crisis that affects the world as a whole, although expressed in different ways in each place. This volume is carefully written and organized to fulfill the main purpose of sociology and the sociologist, according to Elias himself, which is to provide a reality-congruent understanding of the facts, so that humanity can better know itself and, based on this, have better conditions to guide its own actions – therefore, a fundamental contribution in times such as ours.

This volume is carefully written and organized to fulfill the main purpose of sociology and the sociologist, according to Elias himself, which is to provide a reality-congruent understanding of the facts, so that humanity can better know itself and, based on this, have better conditions to guide its own actions – therefore, a fundamental contribution in times such as ours.