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This paper is concerned with the relationship between the organization of political hunger strikes, rational calculations and actions and emotions. Drawing from the theoretical formulations of Norbert Elias, we examine how rational–emotional balances generated by different and intertwined tiers of social integration partly shaped the organization of political hunger strikes. Political hunger strikes are interesting because they tend to involve actions based on rational considerations and emotional charges. The empirical context includes a comparative analysis across space and time involving the organization of political hunger strikes in Ireland and (West) Germany during the 20th century. Our analysis suggests a difference between the rational–emotional tension balance exhibited by hunger strikers of the 1920s and that of hunger strikers of the 1970s and 1980s. We explain how these differences are connected to the broader social structures pertaining at the time. The main contention of the paper is that all forms of political organizing involve rational–emotional balances, and these balances are structured and shaped by social dynamics at different tiers of social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its publication in the 1920s, Mannheim's essay, 'The Problem of Generations' (1952[1928]), has attained seminal status in marked contrast to Norbert Elias's theoretical formulations on generations. Despite Elias's close relationship over many years with Mannheim, the symmetries in their sociological programmes, and, crucially, that Elias's work specifically addresses generational conflict, he remains invisible within the sociology of generations literature. Yet Elias's contributions on this subject are quite extensive, traversing many of his major works. This article begins by reviewing Mannheim's and Elias's formulations on generations and goes on to consider the relevance of Elias's theoretical ideas in relation to contemporary work on generations. The paper contends that Elias's approach is a more empirically employable theoretical frame and also a stronger one for explaining intergenerational conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Social scientists have begun to offer varied diagnoses of why Brexit has happened, and what its consequences have been and will likely be. This article does so by drawing upon Elias-inspired notions of longer-term de-civilizing processes, shorter-term de-civilizing spurts, and short-term de-civilizing offensives. Brexit is conceived of as involving a set of interlocking phenomena and tendencies which are de-civilizing in nature, and therefore de-cosmopolit(an)izing too. Diverse empirical phenomena in the UK are made sense of through the unifying conceptual apparatus of 'de-civilization', allowing analysis to start to relate them to each other systematically. The article also uses this sociological approach to look ahead tentatively to what the post-Brexit socio-political landscape may look like in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this response I will bring the historical roots of the modern individualism and Norbert Elias conceptualizations on Homo Clausus and Homines Aperti—also introducing as Agamben’s discussion on Homo Sacer and other forms of human and societal prejudice and exclusion—to criticize contemporary individualism and discuss the challenges for group analysis in the 21st-century. I build on Haim Weinberg’s concerns on ‘Impossible groups that Flourish in Leaking Containers’ to highlight the importance of ‘total situations’ and ‘applied’ group analysis, since 1948 Foulkes tenets until the current group analytic new challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]