Norbert Elias, the German-born father of figurational sociology,
wrote Über den Prozess der Zivilisation in 1939 although it was
effectively ignored for thirty years before being re-printed in
1969 when its first volume - A History of Manners - was also
translated into English. Just in case you haven't seen it... In
his magnus opus Elias set out to explain the historical
evolution of the concept of civilisation from medieval times to
the 'modern' day. In so doing he argued that the concept was
socially constructed, developed and reinforced and that over
time the values and terms connected with it went from being
socially-imposed (socigenetic) to self-imposed (psychogenetic).
From the 13th Century onwards manners developed far greater
importance - for example the use of cutlery when eating became
part of court etiquette and eventually spread to society as a
whole. Nowadays we use cutlery even when eating alone -
evidence, Elias argued, of the internalisation and self-
imposition of widely-accepted norms of beha