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This article presents ideas relative to the definition of 'social reality' and 'the social' developed by the social scientists Norbert Elias and Bruno Latour. The presentation of these ideas is guided by the following questions: what is the criticism that the authors make to the sociological assumptions of which they move away?; How do they understand the social reality, society, the social?; What is the discussion and proposal that they do about the relationship individual - society?; What are the differences and similarities between the two proposals?. With the response to these issues, this article makes a connection to the main theoretical suppositions of the Elias's Sociology of figurations and to the Latour's Sociology of associations, as well as makes a presentation of the contributions of the authors to the contemporary sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]