Procès de civilisation et transformations sociales; une discussion de la théorie de Norbert Elias dans le domaine du sport

Norbert Elias' theory of the civilizing process is still relevant in the social sciences of sport, as evidenced by the many current references. However, the numerous studies carried out over the past thirty years show some limitations in this area. How can we explain its persistence? After recalling the plan of the German sociologist to explain the creation of English sport in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a transformation of morals which, after experiencing the violent time of the Antique Games, committed itself at the end of the Middle Ages, this study reflects some inconsistencies through the historical and epistemological analysis of key concepts such as sport, sportivization, configuration and violence. A profoundly ambiguous approach is then highlighted between, on the one hand, the process of transformation which, purporting to be linear, is based on apparently solid socio-political and economic analyses and, on the other hand, the appearance of new objects to be highlighted by epistemic ruptures. If this blind point, therefore, opens up many erroneous interpretations, also often participating in strengthening the theory of the civilizing process, its analysis should make it possible not to deny the validity of the Eliasian scheme, but to enrich it and to overcome it.