The Established and the Outsiders

The Established and the Outsiders, is a reissue of a study carried out in the 1950s, while Elias was employed in the department of sociology at the University of Leicester. It is safe to say that it has been rescued from obscurity as part of the collective effort to publish as much of Elias′s oeuvre as possible.... [The book] is worth reading today primarily for the light it sheds on Elias′s intellectual development. Those interested in this aspect can read the introductory chapter, which was written by Elias ten years after the original date of publication for the Dutch edition. Here, Elias uncovers what he considers a universal human theme in the small community of Winston Parva on the outskirts of Leicester.... This particular case study is itself interesting in that these established and outsiders are formed out of the same social class, the working class of the British Midlands, on the basis of neighbourhood and life-style, not relation to the means of production or ethnic or racial differences. As in all his work, Elias uncovers here structural regularities which underlie historical variations in human behaviour.... Norbert Elias and his ardent followers have done sociology a great service in publishing [the book] which help[s] keep alive his interest in the long-term processes of social change. The "civilizing process" will remain a powerful research program for an historical sociology... capable of generating interesting case studies like The Established and the Outsiders.

• Introduction - Norbert EliasA Theoretical Essay on the Established and the OutsidersPrefaceConsiderations of ProcedureNeighbourhood Relations in the MakingOverall Picture of Zone 1 and Zone 2The Mother-Centred Families of Zone 2Local Associations and the ′Old Families′ Network′Overall Picture of Zone 3Observations on GossipYoung People in Winston ParvaConclusion