Manuel Eisner (2003 and 2008)

Résumé du document

In these two articles, Manuel Eisner is interested in the analysis of the evolution of the violence within the societies and especially within the Western European one. He decides to take the stand of describing the "real changes in behavior rather that methodological artefacts". For that, in his 2003's article, he tries to show that both micro and macro-level interpretations can be useful to understand the trends of violence. In the 2008's article, he looks at the evolution of the violence in the Western European societies in the 20th century.

The work of Norbert Elias is really important to explain the decline of homicide rates in the history. His main theory is the one about the "civilizing process", whom originality is to provide a double frame of analysis. Indeed, he developed a theory which gives an interpretation of this fact at a macro-level (general trends), as well at a micro-level (psychological issues).

At a micro-level: "Higher levels of self-control imply, in turn, the gradual pacification of everyday inter-actions, which becomes manifest in lower levels of violent behavior." It means that the individuals have interiorized social constraints, and became less likely to be violent, because of a collective psychological shift, which led to individual psychological changes.

Extraits

[...] The development of the importance of the institutionalization of private justice, or simply the end of the retaliations linked to the honor's value (also in withdrawal) would explain the drop of the violence in societies. In his 2008's article, Isner is interested in the 1960 to 1993's increase of the violence. The figures show that in most of the European societies, the rate of criminality stayed very low during the 1950's, but has known peak from the 1960's to the 1990's. [...]

[...] Manuel Eisner (2003 and 2008) In these two articles, Manuel Eisner is interested in the analysis of the evolutions of the violence within the societies and especially within the Western European one. He decides to take the stand of describing the “real changes in behaviour rather that methodological artefacts”. For that, in his 2003's article, he tries to show that both micro and macro-level interpretations can be useful to understand the trends of violence. In the 2008's article, he looks at the evolution of the violence in the Western European societies in the 20th century. [...]

[...] The young explanation for this kind of evolution of the features would be that the society entered at this time in the society of the Post-Fordism, which involved exclusion, inequalities, deeper gaps between classes, and thus violence. But this theory seems not sustainable, as the author shows it. The matieralist explanation, which defends the theory of the denunciation of the extent of welfare, explains that the fact that the state is too generous with his care leads to the emergence of an underclass population which is not familiar with the notion of responsibility. [...]

[...] It seems really arguable, even on thanks to methodological arguments. For the culturalist thinkers, the individualism and the desagregation of the familial values can explain the fact that people are trying to fulfill their real nature, without constraint, a nature which could be the violence for the men. These articles are interesting because they deal with a burning topic, and because they give keys to understand how our societies become more and more peaceful until the 20th century. But, at the same, if they are put into perspective, they allow us to understand that there has been a development of a new kind of violence in our contemporary societies, which can hardly be explained totally because we can't take back on this topic enough. [...]

[...] Elias was interested in the processes that led the individuals to this psychological change, and for that, he had to take a more generalist view. For him, there are two macro-dynamics which allow us to understand these psychological changes: the expansion of the state from the Middle Age, and the expansion of the market economy. For example, the knightly warrior societies, elites of the Middle Age, because of the development of the state's monopoly of violence, became peaceful court societies. [...]