Durkheim
gracecanigbata
DurkheimPowerpointlatest.ppt1858-1917
Biography
Division of Labor
Social Solidarity
&
Social Facts
Suicide
Anomie
&
Religion & Elementary Forms
Marx vs. Durkheim: The Battle of Beards
Yes, I am French!
The Lectures on Émile Durkheim
*
Durkheim is the academic father of sociology—first ‘real’ sociologist in the academy.
Marx dies 1883
wedged in here is Durkheim
Weber dies 1920
*
Biography
Born in 1858 in Epinal in Lorraine, France
Came from a long line of rabbis
1874-1882, graduated from local schools, attended Ecole (training ground for French elite)
1882-1887, taught philosophy around, studied in Germany, began teaching at University of Bourdeaux
1893, doctoral thesis, The Division of Labor in Society, published
1895, Rules of the Sociological Method
1897, Suicide
1896, first chair in sociology in France
1902-1912, taught at the Sorbonne in Paris
1912, Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Died in 1917
*
By age 40, Durkheim had written three
of the classics in the sociological canon.
And, had forged a new academic discipline too!
Sociology
OMG
The Rules of Sociological Method
1895
How To Be A Sociologist – There are rules:
Rules
1. Put away all personal biases.
2. Phenomena must be clearly defined.
3. Find an empirical indicator (representation).
4. Treat social facts as “things.”
What is a social fact?
the move toward a positivist sociology…
pos·i·tiv·ism-noun.
Scientific doctrine that all knowledge comes from the affirmation of theories through empirical observations and the scientific method.
Durkheim wondered: why do people cooperate with one another if we are all pursuing our own self-interests?
Because something exists outside of us that defines and enforces cooperative behavior…
Society!
Social Realism
Society is a real thing that should be studied on its own terms.
And, we can use the scientific method to understand it…
*
What is a social fact?
Social facts “consist of manners of acting, thinking and feeling external to the individual, which are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over him.”
In other words, social facts are “things” that exist outside of any one of us & yet control us.
Individualism
How is language a social fact?
Suicide
*
Types of Social Facts
Material
Technology
Crime
Population
Non-Material
Love
Honor
Family
Division of Labor in Society
1893
Durkheim’s Division of Labor
a book about social integration in modern societies
What are the roots of social solidarity (and morality) in modern society?
Modern, complex societies are held together through the division of labor, forcing people to be dependent on one another.
The Question
The Method
Social solidarity is reproduced in law, so we can study legal codes to reveal types of social solidarity.
The Argument
*
Social Solidarity
What is it? The glue that holds society together.
Two elements make up solidarity:
integration-connections/weave
regulation-controls/limits
Types of Social Solidarity
(Durkheim sees shifts in the form of solidarity across historical periods and/or across contexts)
Mechanical Solidarity – early and simpler societies (subcultures).
Organic Solidarity (more complex and populated societies)
Homo Duplexis
Durkheim’s view of human nature
Humans are dual natured—social and individual beings.
Durkheim’s view of human nature corresponds with the elements of social solidarity-integration and regulation. A society must modulate individualism and communalism. Too much or too little of either is problematic.
Individualism must be at the same time controlled and ensured --corresponds to moral regulation.
The social nature of humans must be both facilitated and limited by society—corresponds to integration
“simple”
“complex”
strong collective conscience
strong religious commitment
low division of labor
repressive law
weak collective conscience
secular and individualistic
high division of labor
restitutive law
*
*
In a small society, since everyone is clearly placed in the same conditions of existence, the collective environment is basically concrete. It is made up of beings of all sorts who fill the social horizon. The states of conscience representing it then have the same character. First they are related to precise objects, as the animal, this tree, this plant, this natural force etc….
repressive law
restitutive law
Any offense violates the collective moral system, so punishment is harsher.
Punishment intended to bring violator back into the normative fold.
*
REPRESSIVE
RESTITUTIVE
DENSITY & DIVISION OF LABOR *
Law
the “external indicator” of social integration
Mechanical
Organic
low moral and physical density
high moral and physical density
strong collective conscience
growing individual conscience
social interactions
* The function of the division of labor is to bring about social solidarity.
*
Refers to insufficient social regulation of society—of individuals’ interests and activities in society (subcultures).
The result? We don’t feel connected to the larger society.
Creates solidarity by making us dependent or inter-dependent on one another.
Or, de-regulation (normlessness).
Diverse social life can weaken the collective conscience as individuals engage in many specialized activities across the social landscape.
The division of labor can be…
or
*
Problems w/ Organic Societies
Individuation
Loosening of the bonds that bind the individual in the collectivity.
Individualism
Changes in the content of culture characterized as ‘the cult of the individual’ – where social and economic arrangements exalt individual interests (over group interests).
Egoism
The presence of too much individualism in society—where beliefs values and traditions are not held in common.
Solutions for Organic Societies
Create organizations (occupational, secular) that can produce social solidarity within subcultures-- to replace that which is lost as we move away from familial and religiously based solidarity.
FUNCTIONALISM
Perspective built upon twin emphases: application of the scientific method to understand social phenomena and use of a biological (organic) analogy to describe relationship btw the individual organism and society—a system approach.
A Social Phenomenon is FUNCTIONAL if:
universally present across social systems (societies)
necessary –contributes to the survival or normal functioning of the system
FUNCTIONS OF DEVIANCE
- Social control / boundary marking & maintenance
- Social solidarity through boundary marking
- Innovation / social change
Imagine a society of saints….
Suicide as a social fact
Wants to understand the collective—not individual—reasons for suicide
Social Integration
Moral Regulation
LOW
LOW
HIGH
HIGH
ALTRUISTIC
ANOMIC
EGOISTIC
FATALISTIC
Unmarried males
Slaves (rare)
Widowhood, poverty
Suicide bombers
*
What the heck is “collective conscience”?
It is the “totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society [that] forms a determinate system which has its own life.”
Or, it is culture.
Like norms, values, symbols, and beliefs.
How do you know that you are part of American society? A global society?
*
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
1912
Durkheim and religion
Really concerned with collective representations
the hokey-pokey of religion
He argued that religion is both:
1. A form of morality and regulatory codes.
2. An institution for ways of thinking that are essentially social.
Why study primitive Australian aboriginal societies?
1. Simplicity allows for analysis of its “essential” features.
2. Different enough from our own experience that we are able to see it.
*
What is religion?
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them.”
Not really about gods or deities.
Instead, religion is about separating the sacred from the profane.
It s a symbolic reflection of society becoming conscious of itself.
We feel the power of society over us; this is the source of religion.
Religion is a “real” thing.
Society is real. It transcends us, is external to us. It is the sacred.
Religion is the initial source of human knowledge.
Earliest forms of social categories are religious representations.
*
ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
Set apart from the profane. Sacred objects and rituals represent separateness from the everyday world. The sacred comes from society.
The everyday stuff of life. We can treat the profane like economic goods. It is traffic, your job, family life, politics, etc.
*
ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
Representations of the sacred that express its relation with the profane.
A moral community that reenacts the collective memory of the group.
Negative rituals are taboos that limit contact with the sacred.
Positive rituals facilitate fuller communion with the sacred.
*
*
A SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
Durkheim gives us a way of understanding how human social life is constructed. Gives us an understanding of how all KNOWLEDGE is based in human understanding and the moral order.
All knowledge/s—authorities—come from humans marking those knowledges as worth knowing and set apart from profane understandings.
*
Marx
Durkheim
vs.
What divides us?
What binds us together?
On social groups
Role of beliefs and ideas
Role of the sociologist
On the contradictions of capitalism
Normal
Abnormal
Based on relationships of inequality and struggle over economic resources.
Modern societies are coherent and interdependent. Ties create functional meanings.
Weapons controlled by the elite; used as a “veil” to control the proletariat.
They hold together communities, give a common focus to emotions.
The point of philosophy is to change the world.
Should distinguish between normal and pathological, offer solutions.
*
