The book focuses on major aspects of Norbert Elias's social theory through research on supposed "minor" topics, such as manners, sports, leisure and cultural practices. While many of his publications became essential for scholars in the different disciplines concerned, the development of the figurational approach towards these fields was not always completed. The edited volume picks up some lose ends by including archive manuscripts by Elias on the genesis of sport, developments of cultural practices, and the sociology of the body, which are published here for the very first time. Based on critical reviews of these texts, international experts show how the new material adds up to Elias's oeuvre and how it can be fruitfully applied to current research.

In 1962 Norbert Elias was invited as a temporary professor at the University of Ghana in Legon, Accra. He taught, employed fieldwork, travelled, and met many people in postcolonial Africa. When Elias left Ghana in 1964, he had laid the basic groundwork for a fundamental sociological argument on human societies. The volume on hand is a selection of his unpublished writings based on these experiences. Together they touch upon not only the well-known criticism of Eurocentrism and a developmental perspective but also what could be considered the core of Elias's work: the concept of civilisation. In a foreword, Dieter Reicher and Adrian Jitschin have endeavoured to explain and break down the relations of Elias's African experience to the rest of his work and biography. They also clarified some misleading interpretations of Elias's time in Africa. Finally, Arjan Post has uncovered the previously unknown fascinating story of Elias' encounter with Malcolm X in an epilogue.

Das Buch erklart, welche sozialen Mechanismen hinter der Entwicklung der Todesstrafe stehen. Dies geschieht anhand der zwei Fallstudien OEsterreich und England in der Zeit von 1700 bis 1914. Wahrend des 18. und der ersten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts wurden in England wesentlich mehr Menschen zum Tode verurteilt oder hingerichtet als im Habsburgerreich. Dieser Befund uberrascht und stellt ein soziologisches Ratsel dar. Weshalb besass das damals fortschrittliche und liberale England ein derart blutiges Strafrecht, wohingegen das vergleichsweise ruckstandige und polizeistaatlich organisierte OEsterreich nur sehr wenige Hinrichtungen aufwies?