Introduction

The chapters in this volume were written by teachers, students or visiting scholars at the University of Leicester’s now former Centre for Research into Sport and Society.1 A guiding thread that runs through each of them is an understanding of the ‘figurational’ or ‘process-sociological’ approach developed by Norbert Elias (1897-1990), a pioneering figure in sociology generally as well as in the sociology of sport. Elias taught at or was otherwise associated with the Leicester Department of Sociology from 1954 to 1978. In this Introduction, we outline and comment on some of his key contributions, starting with a discussion of his view of time, the relations between history and sociology, and why sociology ought to be a processorientated subject.