The Idea of Civilization and the Making of the Global Order
Andrew Linklater
Abstract
This book analyses the impact of the idea of civilization on the global political order. The inquiry explains Norbert Elias’s pioneering examination of the rise of European civilized self-images. It extends the perspective by discussing the interdependencies between state formation which was central to Elias’s explanation and two inter-related phenomena – European colonial expansion and the evolution of the first universal society of states. Special emphasis is placed on European convictions that other societies would become civilized as a result of colonial civilizing offensives and the mimet ... More
This book analyses the impact of the idea of civilization on the global political order. The inquiry explains Norbert Elias’s pioneering examination of the rise of European civilized self-images. It extends the perspective by discussing the interdependencies between state formation which was central to Elias’s explanation and two inter-related phenomena – European colonial expansion and the evolution of the first universal society of states. Special emphasis is placed on European convictions that other societies would become civilized as a result of colonial civilizing offensives and the mimetic behaviour of non-European regimes. The nineteenth century standard of civilization which embodied that belief was an important junction between state formation, colonial expansion and international society. The book concludes with reflections on the cultural
Keywords:
Civilization,
standards of civilization,
process sociology,
global order,
global civilizing processes
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781529213874 |
Published to Policy Press Scholarship Online: May 2021 |
DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781529213874.001.0001 |