Türk ve Japon Modernleşmesi: 'Uygarlık Süreci' - Birikim

90■Norbert Elias’ civilisation theoryIn his Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation (Civilisation Process - 1939) Norbert Eliasexplores the relation between social processes and psychological structures.His work has started to be discussed in the 1970s. In this article, major criticismsdirected against Elias’ work are analysed. The first criticism is that theanalysis of Elias is Eurocentric. He was accused of being Eurocentric on groundsthat he generalises the connection between the rise of self-control and theemergence of the state as the monopoly of violence to all civilisation processes.Another major criticism is that as Elias asserts that the social processes have acertain direction, his analysis is deterministic and evolutionist. However, thiscriticism is not relevant as the civilisation process is not unilinear and teleological.Other criticisms related with the concept of civilisation, the thesis of relaxation,the processes of distancing from the civilisation, and the gender relationsare mentioned as ingredients -whether they are right or wrong- necessary forthe development of Elias’ theory.