Civilising offensives and decivilising processes: between the emic and the etic

Abstract

‘Civilising processes’, in Elias’s technical or ‘etic’ sense, are long-term, intergenerational, unplanned and unintended processes, involving changes in the balance of the typical social habitus. Paradoxically, ‘civilising offensives’ are in contrast planned, organised and intended. At first glance, they seem to belong to Part One of On the Process of Civilisation, where Elias discusses the ‘emic’ or native meaning of ideas of ‘civility’ and ‘civilisation’ as developed by elites as means of distinction from the lower orders of their own societies and later from people in other continents. On the other hand, civilising offensives may well be part-processes within civilising processes, if they contribute to tilting the balance from Fremdzwang towards Selbstzwang. But in this more etic sense, the means or even the objectives of a civilising offensive may not be very civilised in the emic sense. The essay concludes by asking whether it is conceptually possible to speak of ‘decivilising offensives’, and examines four possible candidate cases, without coming to any firm conclusion.