This was an important sign of the change of times and the growing importance and recognition of the social sciences. From this position, Durkheim helped reform the French school system and introduced the study of social science in its curriculum.
Also in , Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus, with whom he later had two children. In , Durkheim published his first major work, "The Division of Labor in Society," in which he introduced the concept of " anomie ," or the breakdown of the influence of social norms on individuals within a society. In , he published "The Rules of Sociological Method," his second major work, which was a manifesto stating what sociology is and how it ought to be done.
In , he published his third major work, "Suicide: A Study in Sociology," a case study exploring the differing suicide rates among Protestants and Catholics and arguing that stronger social control among Catholics results in lower suicide rates. By , Durkheim had finally achieved his goal of attaining a prominent position in Paris when he became the chair of education at the Sorbonne.
Durkheim also served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education. In , he published his last major work, "The Elementary Forms of The Religious Life," a book that analyzes religion as a social phenomenon. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. This book can also be read with a view to illuminating Durkheim's methods. In the first chapter, he outlines his method, and the theory which could be falsified. By looking at morality, he is not pursuing a philosophical course, mainly in the realm of ideas.
That is, Durkheim is attempting to determine the roots of morality by studying society, and changes in society. These forms of morality are social facts, and data from society must be obtained, and these used to discover causes.
The data used by Durkheim are observable, empirical forms of data in the form of laws, institutions legal and other , norms and behaviour.
In this book, Durkheim adopts a non-quantitative approach, but in Suicide his approach is more quantitative. In examining the roots of social solidarity, Durkheim regards the examination of systems of law as an important means of understanding morality. Since law reproduces the principal forms of social solidarity, we have only to classify the different types of law to find therefrom the different types of social solidarity which correspond to it. Division , p.
That is, since social solidarity is a concept that it not easily observable or measurable, Durkheim attempts to use systems of law as an index of forms and changes in socialsolidarity. From this, Durkheim begins to build a proof of the division of labour as the basis for the different forms of solidarity.
He then attempts to show the nature of society, how it changes over time, and how this results in the shift from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity. Early societies tended to be small scale, localized in villages or rural areas, with a limited division of labour or only a simple division of labour by age and sex. These societies are characterized by likeness, in which the members of the society share the same values, based on common tasks and common life situations and experiences.
In these early societies, Durkheim argues that legal codes or the system of law tends to be repressive law or penal law. If there is a crime in this society, then this crime stands as an offense to all, because it is an offense to the common morality, the shared system of values that exists.
Most people feel the offense, and regardless of how serious it is, severe punishment is likely to be meted out for it. Zeitlin notes p. Anything that offends the common conscience threatens the solidarity — the very existence of society.
An offense left unpunished weakens to that degree the social unity. Punishment therefore serves the important function of restoring and reconstituting social unity.
Penal law is concerned with sanctions only, and there is no mention of obligations. Punishment is severe, perhaps death or dismemberment. Moral obligation and duty is not stated in the punishment, because this is generally understood. Rather the punishment is given, and that is the completion of the penalty. Some of the following quotes from The Division of Labor in Society show the nature of Durkheim's argument: In the quotes, note that the act is criminal because the act offends the collective conscience.
For Durkheim, the collective consciousness reaches all parts of society, has a distinct reality and is independent of individual conditions, and is passed on from one generation to the next. In this, it differs from particular or individual consciences. Division , pp. Quote 5. Collective Consciousness. The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society forms a determinate system which has its own life; one may call it the collective or common conscience.
We do not reprove it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we reprove it. Referring to repressive or penal forms of punishment in early society, Durkheim notes that it may extend to:. This is because the passion which is the soul of punishment ceases only when exhausted. If, therefore, after it has destroyed the one who has immediately called it forth, there still remains force within it, it expands in quite mechanical fashion. In contrast, modern legal codes are quite different, with punishment being less important.
Instead, society is concerned with restoration of the original situation, rather than exacting revenge on the offender. This distinction between different types of legal codes and punishment may provide a means of noting what mechanical solidarity means. Quote 6. Mechanical Solidarity. They must re-enforce themselves by mutual assurances that they are always agreed. The only means for this is action in common.
In short, since it is the common conscience which is attacked, it must be that which resists, and accordingly the resistance must be collective. Thus, the analysis of punishment confirms our definition of crime. We began by establishing inductively that crime consisted essentially in an act contrary to strong and defined states of the common conscience. We have just seen that all the qualities of punishment ultimately derive from this nature of crime.
That is because the rules that it sanctions express the most essential social likeness. Thus we see what type of solidarity penal law symbolizes. They will as they will themselves, hold to it durably and for prosperity, because, without it, a great part of their psychic lives would function poorly.
These quotes show how the collective consciousness works in societies without a highly developed division of labour. The primary function of punishment, therefore, is to protect and reaffirm the conscience collective in the face of acts which question its sanctity.
In order to carry this out, such societies develop forms of repressive or penal law. While the common values in these societies can change over time, this process of change is generally quite slow, so that these values are generally appropriate for the historical period in question. At other times, the laws may be inappropriate, and might be maintained only through force.
However, Durkheim generally considers this to be an exceptional circumstance, and one that is overcome. Organic solidarity. With the development of the division of labour, the collective consciousness begins to decline.
Each individual begins to have a separate set of tasks which he or she is engaged in. These different situations lead to quite a different set of experiences for each individual. The common situation which created the common collective consciousness is disturbed, and individuals no longer have common experiences, but have a great variety of different settings, each leading towards its own consciousness. As the developmen of the division of labour erodes the collective consciousness, it also creates a new form of solidarity.
This new form is organic solidarity, and is characterized by dependence of individuals on each other within the division of labour, and by a certain form of cooperation. There is a. Organic solidarity The growth of organic solidarity and the expansion of the division of labour are hence associated with increasing individualism.
Giddens, p. Cuff et al. Thus the nature of the moral consensus changes. Commonly shared values still persist because without them there would be no society, but they become generalized, as they are not rooted in the totality of commonly shared daily experiences.
Instead of specifying the details of an action, common values tend to be a more general underpinning for social practices. It is in this sense that the division of labour can be seen as a moral phenomenon. Thus Durkheim argues that there are individual, and probably group, differences, at the same time as there is a new form of social solidarity.
Quote 7. Organic Solidarity. There are in each of us, Solidarity which comes from likeness is at its maximum when the collective conscience completely envelops our whole conscience and coincides in all points with it. Durkheim speaks of the centripetal and centrifugal forces, and draws an organic analogy:. Individuality is something which the society possesses. Division , It is quite otherwise with the solidarity which the division of labour produces.
Whereas the previous type implies that individuals resemble each other, this type presumes their difference. The first is possible only in so far as the individual personality is absorbed into the collective personality; the second is possible only if each one has a sphere of action which is peculiar to him; that is, a personality.
In effect, on the one hand, each one depends as much more strictly on society as labor is more divided; and, on the other, the activity of each is as much more personal as it is more specialized. Society becomes more capable of collective movement, at the same time that each of its elements has more freedom of movement.
The solidarity resembles that which we observe among the higher animals. Each organ, in effect, has its special physiognomy, it autonomy. And moreover, the unity of the organism is as great as the individuation of the parts is more marked. Because of this analogy, we propose to call the solidarity which is due to the division of labour, organic.
In the structure of societies with organic solidarity quote 8 :. Quote 8. Social Structure. They are constituted, not by a repetition of similar, homogeneous segments, but by a system of different organs each of which has a special role, and which are themselves formed of differentiated parts. Not only are social elements not of the same nature, but they are not arranged in the same manner. They are not juxtaposed linearly Restitutive or restorative law. Modern systems of law tend to be restitutive or restorative, according to Durkheim.
While there are elements of penal or repressive law, such as the death penalty for murder, that continue to exist in modern societies, modern systems of law are primarily characterized by judgments that require the offending party to restore the situation to the original state — eg.
Modern business and contract law governs the conditions of contracts but says little or nothing about what type of contract parties can enter into. Sufferance proportionate to the misdeed is not inflicted on the one who has violated the law or who disregards it; he is simply sentenced to comply with it. As the division of labour develops, people do not have the same consciousness, so that the form of law must change.
Systematic codes governing exchange and contracts are necessary, but these are the result of the general acceptance of individual rights within the system of a division of labour. Cause of organic solidarity. Durkheim is critical of the economists who regard the development of the division of labour as a result of the coming together of people with different abilities and specialties.
Finally, he was critical of the economists' point of view that merely examined the technical conditions for the division of labour, and the increased efficiency associated with it, without consideration of the broader societal conditions necessary to maintain it. Thus Durkheim did not consider the division of labour as a natural condition. Durkheim considers the development of the division of labour to be associated with the increasing contact among people.
There is a greater density of contact, so that people are led to specialize. The division of labour emerges in different ways in different societies, leading to somewhat different forms of solidarity. Adams and Sydie p. This moral relationship can only produce its effect if the real distance between individuals has itself diminished in some way.
Durkheim refers to this an increasing density. Moral density cannot grow unless material density grows at the same time.
The two are inseparable though. Three ways in which this happens are:. Concentration of people. People begin to concentrate together. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance.
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