41.3 - Established-Outsider Relations / Knowledge Transfer as Intercultural Translation

HSR Vol. 41 (2016) 3
Special Issue - Jason Hughes & John Goodwin (Eds.): Figurational Analysis as Historical and Comparative Method: Established–Outsider Relations

This special issue is concerned principally with the approach to historical and comparative research developed by Norbert Elias. Previous discussions of Elias’s figurational methods and problems of methodology have characteristically focused on the model of time series analysis of informal data sources best exemplified in his magnum opus, On The Process of Civilisation. More recently, other writers have sought to formalise Elias’s methodological approach as a whole, distilling the key elements of his various methods to a number of core analytical procedures. Here our aim with this special issue is to complement and extend such existing work, considering the enduring reach and breadth of Elias’s ‘figurational’ analysis through a focus on his study together with John Scotson of established–outsider figurations in a suburban community in the city of Leicester, UK. The model of established–outsider relations has been extended to inter alia the development of inter- and intra-state conflicts; the formation and collapse of supranational entities and authorities; plus the tensions between globally distributed communities. This collection of papers explores the enduring conceptual and empirical utility of Elias and Scotson’s study in relation to a range of cases which highlight its significance to historical social research. Contributions include, amongst others, considerations of ‘established-outsider figurations,’ ‘double-binds’ and ‘decivilising processes’ in relation to ‘Jihadist terrorists’, the sociogenesis of ‘the museum’, the complexities of established-outsiders relations in Canada, health promotion interventions in a Danish high school, and the social integration of gypsy-travellers/Roma.