Civilization

The concept of civilization has been used to refer to historic societies known for their contributions to the world or for a society's civilized manner. In both uses, civilization denotes a place on a social, political, economic and cultural hierarchy. Although largely normative, these hierarchies are evident of political power. The societies denoted as civilized at the top of the hierarchy maintain an advantage through norm-setting, political manoeuvring, and in forms of imperial and colonial domination through historic and contemporary civilizing projects. Produced in the development of these civilizing projects are benchmarks, or ‘standards of civilization’, which function to reassert hierarchies and delineate who belongs to, as the English School would conceptualize, international society. Explored in this entry are the historic emergence, contemporary politics, and theorization of the concept of civilization and its derivatives, including civilized (civilité) and civilize (civiliser).