Elias in the Dark Ghetto

Norbert Elias's (1994 [1939]) theory of civilization and its counterpart, decivilization, is applied to the black ghettos of US inner cities. It is found that the relational perspective of (de)civilization processes -- in which fear, violence, and the state are dominant foci -- provides insight into three interactive processes that describe the transition from the mid-century communal ghetto to the contemporary hyperghetto: (1) depacification of daily life and disintegration of public space; (2) withdrawal of local, regional, and national organizations; and (3) social dedifferentiation and economic informalization. Thus, the modern hyperghetto is viewed as the concrete materialization of patterns of race- and class-based exclusion, founded in politics in which the social safety net of the semiwelfare state is gradually being replaced by the dragnet of the penal state, reinforcing rather than allaying socioeconomic instability and interpersonal violence. 1 Figure, 22 References. Adapted from the source document.