Challenging the standard paradigm of terrorism research through the use of Norbert Elias's figurational sociology, Michael Dunning explores the development of terrorism in Britain over the past two centuries, focusing on long-term processes and shifting power dynamics. In so doing, he demonstrates that terrorism as a concept and designation is entwined with its antithesis, civilization. A range of process sociological concepts are deployed to tease out the sociogenesis of terrorism as part of Britain's relationships with France, Ireland, Germany, the Soviet Union, the industrial working classes, its colonies, and, most recently, jihadism. In keeping with the figurational tradition, Dunning examines the relationships between broad, macro-level processes and processes at the level of individual psyches, showing that terrorism is not merely a 'thing' done to a group, but part of a complex web of interdependent relations.

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.

Challenging the standard paradigm of terrorism research through the use of Norbert Elias's figurational sociology, Michael Dunning explores the development of terrorism in Britain over the past two centuries, focusing on long-term processes and shifting power dynamics. In so doing, he demonstrates that terrorism as a concept and designation is entwined with its antithesis, civilization. A range of process sociological concepts are deployed to tease out the sociogenesis of terrorism as part of Britain's relationships with France, Ireland, Germany, the Soviet Union, the industrial working classes, its colonies, and, most recently, jihadism. In keeping with the figurational tradition, Dunning examines the relationships between broad, macro-level processes and processes at the level of individual psyches, showing that terrorism is not merely a 'thing' done to a group, but part of a complex web of interdependent relations.