In the article the biography and theories of Norbert Elias, a sociologist who lived and wrote in 20th century, are presented. He tried to overcome the division between society and an individual, he opposed the reduction of processes to states and introduced the term “figuration”. Figurations underline the relational and processual character of social reality. An important part of his sociology is the theory of the civilizing process which using a historical perspectives tries to explain social changes. The aim of this article is to recall Elias’ sociology and to show its importance to contemporary trends in sociology. A starting point is the release of a Polish translation of one of his first book titled What is Sociology?