Only late in his long life did Norbert Elias (1897–1990) achieve intellectual celebrity, but since his death he has been recognised as one of the greatest sociologists of the twentieth century. He is most famous for his theory of civilising processes, but his ambitious vision for the scope of the social sciences extended to the whole development of human society from its earliest origins, including the long-term growth of knowledge and the sciences.
His writings extend to such diverse topics as violence, sport, ageing and dying, time, work, art, poetry, utopias and the relations between the sexes. He likened networks of interdependent human beings - 'figurations' as he called them - to a dance: in constant flux yet structured. His approach has come to be known as ‘figurational sociology’, or more generally – because its appeal is far wider than professional sociologists alone –figurational studies.
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