Le travail des marins dans la pensée sociologique: le contribution de Norbert Elias

The Naval Profession in sociological thought: the Norbert Elias’ contribution This paper examines the Norbert Elias’s study of naval profession at the times of Elizabeth I, Queen of England. Elias analyzes firstly the genesis of the naval profession as a social change process. In the last decades of the sixteenth century, the economic system did further trade activities, reducing at the same time the importance of agriculture. The same happened to the status groups and social classes involved in these economic sectors. The genesis of the naval profession reflects this process. Secondly, only by overcoming the conflict between the craftsmen workers skilled in navigation and the gentleman soldiers skilled in fighting and coming from the ranks of the military, the development of English modern navy was possible. The conflict between these two social groups — distant in values, guidelines and life chances — generated a process of social change. Its outcome was a professional naval officer body and the England's hegemony on the seas. Moreover, the technical innovation in navigation required a significant transformation of sailing skills and consequently an institutionalized training program. Elias lastly compares the evolution of the English navy to those of the other major naval powers at that time: France and Spain. The reason behind the success of the English navy, according to Elias, was primarily social in nature. In England the social status of the land army military did not outweigh that of the sailors, as was instead in the continental nations.