Abstract
In this chapter Dépelteau argues that Elias’s approach does not fully integrate the ambivalence of modernity towards violence. Elias’s work is very useful for understanding the relative pacification of core societies (such as modern France and Great Britain) in their territories. However, it fails to explain how violence is still a central and permanent dynamic in the difficult reproduction of modern social orders. In few words, we cannot understand “pacified” societies in Europe without integrating this high level of violence which is prevalent in larger configurations. Empirical examples from colonization and texts or speeches made by “civilized” people (like J. Ferry and de Tocqueville) are used to support this thesis. We see that the use of violence is a central issue which creates many tensions (not only theoretical ones) in modernity.
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Dépelteau, F. (2017). Elias’s Civilizing Process and Janus-Faced Modernity. In: Landini, T., Dépelteau, F. (eds) Norbert Elias and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56118-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56118-3_5
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