Meetings: The frontline of civilization

Abstract

The meetingization of society as a central aspect of civilizing processes is the theme of this article. This term refers to a long-term social process: as larger numbers of people become mutually dependent over larger areas and/or differences in power decrease between people, an increased number of problems needs to be solved through talking and decision-making in meetings which require an ever-increasingly precise, more equal and more embracing regulation of impulses and short-lived affects. This 'compulsion to meet' is less well developed when the networks of mutual dependence are smaller and less stable, and/or the balances of power are more unequal. © 2011 The Author. Editorial organisation © 2011 The Editorial Board of the Sociological Review.