Over the last century and a half, manners and formalities in the West have become less status-ridden, stiff and rigid. Debates around Norbert Elias' theory of civilising processes gave rise to questions of a change in direction of these patterns. The concept of informalisation, which describes these transformations, was first used to analyse the tumultuous changes of the 1960s and 1970s. This increasing informality, leniency and flexibility, comes hand-in-hand with a growing demand on individuals to self-regulate their emotions. This book will stimulate debate around the changes in the standards of manners and emotion regulation, and will generate new avenues of enquiry that focus on issues involving informalisation. The chapters shed light on a variety of such moral and political issues over the last 150 years, offering a new and broader scope on the present social condition of humanity. Civilisation and Informalisation will be an important addition for students and scholars of figurational process sociology, and of broader interest to academics across sociology, social psychology and social history.

In "The Established and the Outsiders", Elias and Scotson explain differences in power and rank between two very similar groups - both working class - in a local community studied in the early 1960s. They show how one group monopolised sources of power and used them to exclude and stigmatise members of the other, pinpointing the role of gossip in the process. In a later theoretical introduction, Elias advanced a general theory of power relations, applying the established-outsiders model to changing power balances between classes, ethnic groups, colonised and colonisers, men and women, parents and children, gays and straights. A further theoretical development in the last year of his life is an essay inspired by Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking Bird", published here in English for the first time.

This is a highly original and in many ways brilliant text. It is a model of how historical/process sociological research ought to be conducted and written-up. The author's subtle blending of theory and data is outstanding' - "Eric Dunning, Professor of Sociology, University of Leicester

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Wouters has written a book both broad in scope and deep in analytic reach. Exploring changes in courtship norms over the last century in English, Dutch, German and American books of manners, he discovers changes which confirm the theory of informalization. Relations between the sexes are, he shows us, less regulated from outside and more from inside. This change calls - paradoxically - for both an emancipation of emotion and an ever sharper cultural eye on ways of managing emotion. The book carries Elias's classic, The Civilizing Process one giant step further. An important contribution and a fascinating read' -" Arlie Russell Hochschild, University of California

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This dazzling book examines changes in American, Dutch, English and German manners, regarding the changing relationships between men and women. From the disappearance of rules for chaperonage and the rise of new codes for courting, dates, public dances and the work place, it shows how women have become their own chaperone by gaining the rights to pay for themselves, to have a job and be a sexual subject.

This original and thought-provoking book:

- provides empirical evidence showing how younger generations removed their courting from under parental wings and how the balance of power between the sexes shifted in women's favour;

- monitors changes in codes regarding sexuality by focusing on the balance betweenthe desire for sexual gratification and the longing for enduring intimacy;

- documents the balance of controls over sexual impulses and emotions shifting from external social controls to internal ones;

- compares nationally different trends, particularly between the USA and Europe, focusing on the American dating system and its resulting double standards;

- argues that the initial greater freedom of American women has turned into a deficit.

Cas Wouters teaches Sociology at Utrecht University

This is a highly original and in many ways brilliant text. It is a model of how historical/process sociological research ought to be conducted and written-up. The author's subtle blending of theory and data is outstanding' - "Eric Dunning, Professor of Sociology, University of Leicester

"

Wouters has written a book both broad in scope and deep in analytic reach. Exploring changes in courtship norms over the last century in English, Dutch, German and American books of manners, he discovers changes which confirm the theory of informalization. Relations between the sexes are, he shows us, less regulated from outside and more from inside. This change calls - paradoxically - for both an emancipation of emotion and an ever sharper cultural eye on ways of managing emotion. The book carries Elias's classic, The Civilizing Process one giant step further. An important contribution and a fascinating read' -" Arlie Russell Hochschild, University of California

"

This dazzling book examines changes in American, Dutch, English and German manners, regarding the changing relationships between men and women. From the disappearance of rules for chaperonage and the rise of new codes for courting, dates, public dances and the work place, it shows how women have become their own chaperone by gaining the rights to pay for themselves, to have a job and be a sexual subject.

This original and thought-provoking book:

- provides empirical evidence showing how younger generations removed their courting from under parental wings and how the balance of power between the sexes shifted in women's favour;

- monitors changes in codes regarding sexuality by focusing on the balance betweenthe desire for sexual gratification and the longing for enduring intimacy;

- documents the balance of controls over sexual impulses and emotions shifting from external social controls to internal ones;

- compares nationally different trends, particularly between the USA and Europe, focusing on the American dating system and its resulting double standards;

- argues that the initial greater freedom of American women has turned into a deficit.

Cas Wouters teaches Sociology at Utrecht University

"This book shows that manners, far from being superficial adornments of behaviour, are thoroughly interwoven with our personalities and the structures of our societies. The concept of 'informalization' provides both an invaluable addition to Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing processes and a most useful tool for understanding how changes in manners are related to shifts in the balances of power between social classes, sexes, and generations" - Johan Goudsblom, University of Amsterdam "Cas Wouters stakes out a powerful theory about changes in human relationships in the Western world over the past twelve decades... essential reading for anyone interested in the contemporary human condition." - Theory and Society "It is written in clear, unequivocal language, abounds with detail and replaces many normative statements about the alienating state of contemporary, capitalist, mass-consumption-oriented bureaucracy.... A nuanced, subtle and theoretically informed analysis of the sometimes quite chaotic civilising process of the last century' - Figurations This original book explains the sweeping changes to twentieth-century regimes of manners and self. Broad in scope and deep in analytic reach, it provides a wealth of empirical evidence to demonstrate how changes in the code of manners and emotions in four countries (Germany, Netherlands, England and the US) have undergone increasing informalization. From the growing taboo toward the displays of superiority and inferiority and diminishing social and psychicogical distance between people, it reveals an 'emancipation of emotions' and the new representation of emotion at the centre of personality. This thought-provoking book traces: The increasing permissiveness in public and private manners, such as introductions, the use of personal pronouns, social kissing, dancing, and dating. The ascent and integration of a wide variety of groups - including the working classes, women, youth and immigrants - and the sweeping changes this has imposed on relations of social inferiority and superiority. Shifts in self-regulation that require manners to seem 'natural', at ease and authentic. Rising external social constraints towards being reflexive, showing presence of mind, considerateness, role-taking, and the ability to tolerate and control conflicts. Growing interdependence and social integration, declining power differences and the diminishing social and psychic distance between people. Continuing the analysis of Sex and Manners (SAGE, 2004), this book is a dazzling work of historical sociology.