Formalization and Informalization: Changing Tension Balances in Civilizing Processes

Wouters, Cas

doi:10.1177/0263276486003002002

Cited by 154 publications

(89 citation statements)

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“…Also observable within this overall process is what Elias (2000) termed the 'controlled decontrolling of emotional controls', social processes whereby the standard of conduct appears to be relaxed and 'less civilised' behaviour becomes admissible. Wouters (1986) and triggered feelings of repugnance in the observer. The fact that this is no longer the case owes to the different standard of conduct of these particular phases of development.…”

Section: Functional Democratisation: Informalisation and The Convergementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wouters (1986) explains the process of informalisation with respect to the permissive society with recourse to the emancipation movements of the 1960s and the decrease in power differentials in the relations between a range of groups including men and women, parents and children, and teachers and pupils. The result was a relaxation of the rigid taboos-sexual, behavioural-of previous generations as the thoughts previously suppressed from consciousness, those that were transformed from social to 11 self-restraints through the fear of others, were able to gain the upper hand.…”

Section: Functional Democratisation: Informalisation and The Convergementioning

confidence: 99%

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(In)formalization and the Civilizing Process: Applying the Work of Norbert Elias to Housing‐Based Anti‐Social Behaviour Interventions in the UK

Powell

Flint

2009

Housing, Theory and Society

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This paper utilises Norbert Elias' theory of the civilising process to examine trends in social conduct in the UK and to identify how problematic 'anti-social' behaviour is conceptualised and governed through housing-based mechanisms of intervention.The paper describes how Elias' concepts of the formalisation and informalisation of conduct and the construction of established and outsider groups provide an analytical framework for understanding social relations. It continues by discussing how de-civilising processes are also evident in contemporary society, and are applied to current policy discourse around Respect and anti-social behaviour. The paper utilises the governance of 'anti-social' conduct through housing mechanisms in the UK to critique the work of Elias and concludes by arguing that a revised concept of the civilising process provides a useful analytical framework for future studies.

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Section: Functional Democratisation: Informalisation and The Convergementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Functional Democratisation: Informalisation and The Convergementioning

confidence: 99%

(In)formalization and the Civilizing Process: Applying the Work of Norbert Elias to Housing‐Based Anti‐Social Behaviour Interventions in the UK

Powell

Flint

2009

Housing, Theory and Society

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“…He writes (p. 332): 'Even informality can become formalised into a form of its own (Wouters, 1986)', thus using an aspect of the informalisation process merely to dress up this platitude.…”

Section: Davetian's Civilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Discussing Civilisation and Informalisation: Criteriology

Wouters

Mennell

2013

Política Soc.

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Norbert Elias's theory of civilising processes has been received only marginally in the USA, one of the obstacles being the absence of figurational or process studies of American society. In the first decade of this century this situation was changed by the publication of Stephen Mennell's The American Civilizing Process (2007) and Cas Wouters' Sex and Manners (2004) and Informalization (2007). By 2012, Randall Collins had reviewed the first and the third books in two essays (2009, 2011). His claims and criticism of civilising and informalisation theory are discussed in this paper by placing them in the context of the reception history of Elias's work since the 1960s, when a first round of discussion centred on criteria to be used for determining the direction of civilising processes. A second round was in the 1990s, and in this paper we contribute to a new round by presenting a summary of earlier critical discussions in an attempt to establish a more solid and subtler body of criteria for studying civilising processes. We use this in critically discussing Collins's contributions, linking them to symbolic interactionism, American National Ideology, and blind spots in American sociology.

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“…Furthermore, it is arguable that, bearing in mind the recent suggestion that law is experiencing a process of "re-emotionalization" (Laster & O"Malley, 1996;Karstedt, 2002), which, it has been suggested is linked to broader patterns of emotional culture in late modern societies (Karstedt, 2002;Wouters, 1986;Barbalet, 1998;Williams, 2001), it could now be apposite to argue for greater recognition of home attachments, hitherto dismissed in law as "mere emotion".…”

Section: (5) An Idea Of Home In Law?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Idea of Home in Law

Fox

2005

Home Cultures

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Formalization and Informalization: Changing Tension Balances in Civilizing Processes

Cited by 154 publications

References 1 publication

(In)formalization and the Civilizing Process: Applying the Work of Norbert Elias to Housing‐Based Anti‐Social Behaviour Interventions in the UK

(In)formalization and the Civilizing Process: Applying the Work of Norbert Elias to Housing‐Based Anti‐Social Behaviour Interventions in the UK

Discussing Civilisation and Informalisation: Criteriology

The Idea of Home in Law

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