This article outlines the key elements of Norbert Elias’s theory of the civilizing process that can usefully be drawn upon to develop a detached, less present-focused sociological understanding of the Covid-19 pandemic. Three ideas are highlighted: first, this is in fact an old story, in the sense that we’re in the middle of a constellation of long-term processes, and this matters in a number of ways. Second, human civilization, understood as based on expanding and intensifying forms of global interdependence, is both a cause and part of the solution to the problems we are facing. Third, the causes, effects and possible responses to the Covid-19 pandemic are tightly bound up with what kinds of persons we are. It concludes that a sustainable response to crises like pandemics will only be organized around rational reflection to a limited extent: in significant ways it will be constituted by shifts at the emotional and psychological level, in the realm of culture and habitus, by the formation of particular ways of being a person.

中文翻译：

---

Covid-19 和文明进程

本文概述了诺伯特·埃利亚斯 (Norbert Elias) 文明过程理论的关键要素，可以有效地利用这些要素来发展对 Covid-19 大流行的超然的、不太关注当下的社会学理解。强调了三个想法：首先，这实际上是一个古老的故事，从某种意义上说，我们正处于一系列长期过程的中间，这在很多方面都很重要。其次，人类文明被理解为建立在全球相互依存形式不断扩大和加强的基础上，它既是我们面临的问题的原因，也是解决方案的一部分。第三，对 Covid-19 大流行的原因、影响和可能的反应与我们是什么样的人密切相关。它的结论是，对流行病等危机的可持续反应只能在有限的范围内围绕理性反思进行：