Elias, Norbert

Norbert Elias (1897–1990) was born in Breslau, Germany, in 1897. After studying medicine and philosophy at Breslau University, Elias turned his attention to the problem of long-term changes in what was assumed to be the constancy of human emotions and affects. He left Germany in 1933 as a refugee from the Nazi regime and continued his research, first in France and then in London. The result of this research was The Civilizing Process, which was published in 1939. After World War II, he worked as a sociologist in Uganda and at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He died in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1990, leaving a rich legacy of conceptual innovations that continues to be developed, usually under the terms of civilizing and decivilizing processes, ...