The sociology of the 20th century has largely overlooked the long-term transformations of societal and personality structures. In the work of Norbert Elias, these long-term processes are the central theme: How did "civilization" actually unfold in the West? What did it consist of? And what were its drives, causes, or engines? Elias's work is neither an investigation into an "evolution" in the sense of the 19th century nor an examination of an unspecific "social change" in the sense of the 20th; his work is fundamental for a non-dogmatic, empirically grounded sociological theory of social processes.