Prologue: professional cycling, power relations and thresholds of shame

Changing power relations and advancing thresholds of shame are processes underpinning developments in professional cycling. These concepts form part of a broader set of conceptual formulations within the broader figurational-sociological approach developed by Norbert Elias and which provide a guiding theoretical thread throughout this book. The concept of an ‘advance in the threshold of shame’ implies that shame and embarrassment are more easily triggered. The social driver of advances in the threshold of shame are changes in power relations at different tiers of social integration as Elias explained. The chapter outlines the main developments examined in the book and gives a broad overview of some of Elias’s theoretical formulations.