Beyond the ‘Parsonian Problem of Order’: Elias, Habit and Contemporary Sociology or Hobbes was Right

Abstract

The way in which Simmel answered the question ‘How is society possible?’ provided a variety of important and fruitful foundations for subsequent sociological theory and research. However, the reformulation of the sociological Grundfrage as revolving around the so-called “Hobbesian problem of order” by Talcott Parsons in The Structure of Social Action took sociology in a completely different direction. After briefly outlining the critiques of Parsons’ construction of Hobbes, which suggest that it is more accurate to speak of the “Parsonian problem of order”, the paper then examines the ways in which Elias’s theory of human society deals with social order in a more useful way, one which takes us back to Simmel’s original formulation as well as suggesting ways of developing it. The central argument is that Elias’s theoretical orientation provides a way to rescue those elements of classical and early twentieth-century sociology which were written out of the sociological canon as a result of widespread adoption of the “action-theoretical” orientation of Structure - particularly the concept of “habit” - and to re-incorporate them into contemporary social theory and research.