ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to outlines and appraises the strengths and weaknesses of the Figurational Sociology of Sport of Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning. With its 'distinctive' focus on the 'civilising process' and on the 'sociogenesis' and complex 'structural determination' of shifting 'social figurations'. A Figurationist 'paradigm' in the sociology of sport and leisure would appear to be well established, and a theoretical text on the sociology of leisure written from the point of view of Figurational Sociology has recently appeared. Prominent among such methodological orientations are the Figurationists' over-drawn hostility to other, including Marxian, forms of analysis, and also the restrictiveness of their method-ological stance on 'involvement and detachment'. The overriding view of the Figurationist is that satisfactory explanations in sociology, of a phenomenon such as modern sport, can only come from the painstaking historical and sociological analysis of the specific as well as the general features of figurations.
