Civilization as Disciplinization and the Consequences for Religion and World Politics

Author: Jocelyne Cesari

February 20, 2019

This article argues in favor of Nobert Elias' historical and relational sociology to rehabilitate the notion of civilization. Cesari argues that Elias' approach has two advantages: first, it avoids the use of de-historicized models of political development that project a Western-centered approach. Second, it focuses on the central role of the nation-state in shaping the contemporary religious dimension of politics. This perspective is applied to postcolonial nation-states to explain the rise and expansion of political Islam from national to global forms of political expression. This article by Jocelyne Cesari was published in the Review of Faith & International Affairs (Volume 17, 2019 - Issue 1: A Quarter Century of the 'Clash of Civilizations'). 

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