Editor's Introduction

Abstract

This issue's diverse range of contributions highlights the extent to which tenets of process sociology are applied to a widening array of social phenomena. The allure of Elias’s ideas is to enable the reader to connect apparently unconnected social phenomena – from self-control of public officials (civil servants) to love, social progress and shame. In fact, he always suggested that the overarching theory of civilising processes had the status of a working hypothesis that required continual testing, refuting and refining in order to maintain a two-way traffic between theory and evidence. This issue is one step in that direction.