ABSTRACT
The argument in this chapter is that process sociology can be read as providing the necessary elements for a reconstruction of Marx’s historical-sociological answer to the problem of orientation. This entails mobilising what Elias designates as the ‘universals of human societies’, in the form of what are here referred to as process-concepts, that capture the predominant social dynamics shaping the long-term process of human development. Process sociology offers a set of these process-concepts – such as symbol emancipation, triad of controls, monopoly mechanism, survival units, and civilising processes – that provide the building blocks for a reconstruction of a historical-sociological approach to grand narratives that permits a more adequate answer to both the explanatory and the anticipatory dimensions of the problem of orientation.
