Norbert Elias and Karl Mannheim

contrasting perspectives on the sociology of knowledge

Richard Kilminster

pp. 191-207

in: François Dépelteau, Tatiana Savoia Landini (eds), Norbert Elias and social theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

The aim of the comparison of Norbert Elias and Karl Mannheim in this chapter is to contribute to our understanding of Elias by situating his theories and his wider sociological outlook as a development out of the German Wissenssoziologie movement. As is very well known, this school originated in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and 1930s, and Karl Mannheim was its principal representative and intellectual leader. As one of Mannheim's assistants, as well as one of his Habilitation candidates, Elias directly participated in this enterprise. An awareness of the specific genesis of Elias's work should also help us to understand some of the deeper presuppositions and assumptions underlying his whole approach. The comparison of Elias and Mannheim inevitably also illuminates the work of Mannheim, although that is not the primary intention.

Cited authors

Mannheim Karl

Elias Norbert