From distance to detachment: knowledge and self-knowledge in Elias's theory of involvement and detachment

Loyal, Steven; Quilley, Stephen

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511488832.002

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For example, the shift from an oral to written transmission of knowledge enables the development and dissemination of more complex concepts. While this relationship is not a 'zero-sum' game where, e.g., detachment necessarily increases as involvement decreases (Kilminster 2004), generally speaking, contemporary western modes of thought are marked by the re-/displacement of 'magicalmythical' or 'fantasy-laden' thinking which is 'highly influenced by immediate interests and strong emotions' (Wilterdink 2003: 303), with relatively detached, rational, reflexive forms of scientific knowledge (Elias 1987a). The co-existence of traditional medicine and biomedicalisation in the treatment of elite sport injury is an apposite example (Faulkner et al 2017).…”

Section: Illness Narratives and Eliasian Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Elias, detachment not only entails thinking about oneself as a social being rather than an individual with biological urges, but may entail thinking about the process of producing knowledge, e.g. while being interviewed (Kilminster 2004). Conditions of relative physical and social insecurity (during times of war, but equally when one becomes ill) fuel more involved thought processes.…”

Section: Illness Narratives and Eliasian Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But equally an Eliasian sociology of knowledge enables us to make sense of apparently incongruous data. Because involvement and detachment is not a zero-sum game (Kilminster 2004), people's ability to 'impression manage' is as important as their ability to verbalise a position that coheres with the behaviour we were able to measure. Within the study 'inconsistent' findings, and thus potential indications of impression management, occurred in relation to accounts of physical activity and smoking.…”

Section: Accounting For Illness Narratives: Elias's Sociology Of Knowmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), illness narratives and Elias's sociology of knowledge

Malcolm

Orme

Morgan

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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This paper draws on Elias's sociology of knowledge to provide a critical assessment of illness narratives. Focusing on a cohort of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients (n = 26), the paper employs a comparative analysis of mixed method data derived from qualitative interviews, quantitative questionnaires, and physiological and accelerometer testing. The article firstly compares four narratives conveyed in interviews with the broader paradigmatic approach to illness narratives and existing COPD-specific studies. It then explores the relationship between these 'stories' and COPD patients' biographical contingencies (e.g. age, wealth, context of diagnosis) and embodied condition (e.g. co-morbidities, lung function), demonstrating how illness narratives are shaped by both broader social structural factors and embodied experience. Invoking Elias we further find that different narrative subthemes are varyingly affected by patients' emotional engagement and ontological security and thus that people are differently enabled or constrained to present illness narratives that are consistent with their broader social and physical condition. Consequently, while narratives, social structure and embodied experience are interdependent, our reading of 'truth' must be sensitive to the social positioning of the 'teller' and the specific content being relayed. The paper therefore presents a more systematic, comparative, bio-psycho-social analysis than has hitherto been produced.

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Section: Illness Narratives and Eliasian Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Illness Narratives and Eliasian Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Accounting For Illness Narratives: Elias's Sociology Of Knowmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), illness narratives and Elias's sociology of knowledge

Malcolm

Orme

Morgan

et al. 2017

Social Science & Medicine

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“…Richard Kilminster looks forward to the future proliferation of morally and politically detached sociologies, assuring everybody that ‘the process of the development of sociology is not yet completed’ (2004: 38), and Loyal and Quilley insist that ‘over the long term, sociology will eventually underwrite more effective political interventions’ (2005a: 815). This long term focus is the singularly most crucial point to be considered within any discussion of the politics of figurational sociology 6 .…”

Section: The Eventually Engaged Policy Of Present Non‐engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is in this sense that Kilminster suggests that the figurational sociologist's political passion might for now be channeled into and expressed through the work he or she does (2004: 33). This would be to convert figurational sociology into a vocation.…”

Section: The Eventually Engaged Policy Of Present Non‐engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Figurational Sociology

Dunne

2009

The Sociological Review

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Figurational sociology is so often said to distance itself from the political issues of the day. Whilst this is certainly true with regards to the present day, it in no way follows that figurational sociology seeks to distance itself from politics as such. On the contrary, as will be shown within this paper, politics is and always has been a central concern for figurational sociologists. This political concern, however, is an exclusively long term concern; figurational sociology purposively postpones present political engagement for the sake of developing a sufficiently detached sociology that would eventually facilitate in the delivery of effective practical and political measures. This paper discusses the stakes involved in, as well as the reasoning behind, the assignment of such a place to politics. It gestures towards two distinct and separate concepts of social control that exist within figurational sociology and then proceeds to offer a critical consideration of the consequences that can be derived from any temporal demarcation of the political done on their basis. The paper ultimately suggests that figurational sociology's position on politics raises a series of as yet unanswered questions, questions which can no longer remain unanswered by the contemporary figurational sociologist.

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Karl Marx: New Perspectives

Kilminster

2018

Time, Science and the Critique of Technological Reason

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From distance to detachment: knowledge and self-knowledge in Elias's theory of involvement and detachment

Cited by 28 publications

References 13 publications

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), illness narratives and Elias's sociology of knowledge

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), illness narratives and Elias's sociology of knowledge

The Politics of Figurational Sociology

Karl Marx: New Perspectives

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