Introduction

This introductory chapter argues that the application of Norbert Elias’s sociology of social processes to post-communist transformation in East Central Europe has long been overdue. After a review of the main themes of the established–outsider theory, the chapter provides a critical examination of the heretofore uses of this model in empirical research. Furthermore, the need to expand the empirical uses ensues from the undeveloped potential of the Eliasian model, including the possibility to integrate the perspective of the study of symbols, memories, and visual communications with insights into interactional, spatial, and institutional dimensions of exclusion. Moreover, the chapter examines the possibility to combine an intersectional view of social difference and inequality with the established–outsider model so as to indicate the differences between the initial case study of Elias and Scotson, along with empirical contexts of its application in complex societies undergoing large-scale transformations, in which figurations of the established and the outsiders may overlap and interplay, producing balances of power irreducible to simple schemes of domination and subjugation. Finally, the chapter briefly discusses the heretofore attempts to study social division in Poland against the backdrop of sociology of post-socialist transformation societies, indicating the advantages of approaching this field with Eliasian theory. The author highlights effects of the change that happened after 2015, including the institutional disarray, the growing social conflict, and the weakening of international interdependencies. The chapter ends with an outline of the volume’s contents.