Emile

Durkheim

Biography
and
Social Background
 Life and Childhood
Life and childhood
Born in Lorraine April 15, 1858
Son of a prominent Rabbi
Raised in strict Jewish fashion
Early schooling in a rabbinical school
Decided not to become a rabbi
Eventually became agnostic
Schooled in many prestigious schools
College d'Epinal
Lycee Louis-Le-Grand in Paris
Ecole Normale Superieure
 Life and Influences
Early Influences
Charles Renouvier-philosopher
Emile Boutoux-philosopher
Numas-Denis Fustel de Coulanges-historian
Rebelled against the generlalized
education
Preferred training in scientific methods and
moral principles
"The metaphysician"
 Life and Influences
1887 - went to Bordeaux to teach
pedagogy and social science to new
teachers.
Through his new position, he
reformed the French school system
and introduced social science into its
curriculum.
1893 - published The Division of
Labor in Society.
1895 - published Rules of the
Sociological Method, and founded the
European Department of Sociologique
at the University of Bordeaux.
1896 - founded the journal L'Anne
Sociologique.
Life and Influences
1897 - published Suicide
1902 - awarded a prominent position
in Paris as the chair of education at
the Sorbonne.
1912 - published Elementary Forms of
the Religious Life, and his position
became permanent and he renamed it
the chair of education and sociology.
His son died in World War I, and he
never recovered emotionally.
Suffered a stroke in Paris in 1917, but
recovered and resumed work on La
Morale.
Later that year on November 15, he
died at age 59 from exhaustion.
 Social Facts
Definition: [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.

According to Durkheim, social facts are the subject

matter of sociology. Social facts are sui generis
(meaning of its own kind; unique) and must be
studied distinct from biological and psychological
phenomenon.
 The Division of Labor
Division of labor examined how social order was maintained in
different types of societies.
Traditional societies were held together by the fact that

everyone was more or less the same. The collective

consciousness entirely includes individual consciousness.
In modern societies, the high complex division of labor resulted

in the binding of people together with different specializations in

employment. This created dependencies that tied people to one
another since no one person could fill all of the need by
themselves.
Anomie: Increasing division of labor
can lead to rapid change in a society.
This can produce a state of confusion
with regards to norms and
impersonality in social life. This leads
to a state in which the norms
regulating behavior have been broken
down.
Durkheim and Division of Labor
Traditional Society Modern Society

Mechanical solidarity = a Organic solidarity = form of

form of social social interdependence based
interdependence based on on differentiated/specialized
commonly shared beliefs and division of labor.
strong group identity. Based
on very simple division of
labor.
Similar to simple organism or Similar to a complex
machine: individuals are most organisms; its organs are not
functionally equivalent and interchangeable.
substitutable

Society is in the individual The Individual is in Society

 Durkheim and Religion
He defined religion in the following
way: "A religion is a unified system of
beliefs and practices relative to
sacred things, i.e., things set apart
and forbidden--beliefs and practices
which unite in one single moral
community called a Church, all those
who adhere to them." Religion is an
expression of, and a way of creating,
social order. - God is Society, writ
Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Thought religion was a form of social
cohesion, which holds complex societies
together.
Saw totemism as the original form of
religion, because it was the emblem for
the social group, the clan.
Believed that the function of religion
was to make people willing to put the
interests of others ahead of themselves.
The model for relationships between
people and the supernatural was the
relationship between individuals and
the community.
God is society, writ large.
Saw religion as a mechanism that
protected a threatened social order.
 Elementary Forms of Religious Life
In the past, religion had been the cement of society - the
means by which men had been led to turn from the
everyday concerns in which they were variously enmeshed
to a common devotion to sacred things.
A religion is a unified system of beliefsrelative to sacred
thingsbeliefs and practices which unite in one single moral
community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.

Condensed religion into 4 major functions:

1) Disciplinary: forcing or administrating discipline
2) Cohesive: bringing people together, a strong bond
3) Vitalizing: to make more lively or vigorous, vitalize, boost
spirit
4) Euphoric: a good feeling, happiness, confidence, well-being
 Suicide
Defined suicide as the act of severing social relationships.
Goal was to show that an individual act is actually the result of the
social world that he would show the usefulness of sociology.
He explored the differing suicide rates among Protestants and
Catholics. He explained how socially controlled Catholics had a lower
suicide rate.
Social integration: the integration of a group of people into the
mainstream of society.
Said that abnormally high or low levels or social integration may
result in increased suicide rates.
Results he found include:
Suicide rates are higher for widowed, single or divorced people rather
than those who are married.
Rates are higher for those who have no children rather than those who
do .
Rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics.
Coroners in a Catholic country are less likely to record a suicide as the
reason of death because in Catholism it is a sin.
 Suicide
Suicide may be caused by weak social
bonds.
Social bond is made up of social
integration and social regulation.
Distinguished 4 types of suicide:
1) Egoistic Suicide: Individual is weakly
integrated into a society so ending their life
will have little impact on the rest of society.
2) Altruistic suicide: Individual is extremely
attached to the society and because of this
has no life of their own.
3) Anomic suicide: There is a weak social
regulation between societys norms and the
individual and is most often brought on by
dramatic economic or social changes.
4) Fatalistic suicide: Social regulation is
completely instilled in the individual. There
is no hope of change against the oppressive
discipline of the society. Feels that the only
way to escape this state is suicide.
 Collective Conscience

Collective conscience is a
collection of beliefs, ideas, and
sentiments shared by members of a
community. Basically, a shared sense
of reality, morality, and identity
based in common/shared
experiences.
 Socialism
Durkheim opposed socialism and tried
to construct a model of society that
was in opposition to Marx.
Even though Durkheim opposes
socialism he believes that people who
acquire too much wealth have a
greater likelihood of becoming corrupt,
which is a function of socialism.
 Functionalism
Functionalist perspective views society as a
sum total of the large number of persons,
groups, organizations and social
institutions.
Society is a system, and its parts contribute
to its stability and continued existence.
Parts of the society are interconnected and
try to meet the demands of each of the
parts.
 Crime
Durkheims view of crime was that it serves
as a function to help unite society's'
members.
A action does not shock the conscience
collective because it is a crime but the action
is a crime because it shocks the conscience
collective.
Punishment of violators reminds society as a
whole to not risk deviating from the law.
Punishment also reaffirms the sense of
morality within a society.
 Relevance
Attempted to mold events to put his
principles into practice.
He founded and edited LAnnee
Sociologique a professional sociological
periodical.
He provided the basic schematic for
structural and functional analysis in
sociology, and insisted on the usage of
empirical methodology, so that sociology
could accurately claim itself as a science.
 Relevance
Durkheim hoped that scientific sociology
would help create a moral re-education in
the Third Republic and at the same time
replace religion as the source of morality
within a secular morality.
He became the secretary of the
Committee for the Publication of studies
and documents on the war, publishing
several pamphlets attacking pan-
Germanism, to help France in WWI.
 Relevance
He lost his son Andre, who had followed his father
to Ecole Normale to pursue a promising career as
a sociological linguist. The death hit him hard and
was able to write very little afterwards and
eventually died at the age of 59.
Durkhiems works and thoughts continued to be
relevant and significant in the third millennium.
Rober Merton expanded Durkheims functional
approach through his manifest and latent
functions, utilizing the term dysfunctional as it
applies to social systems and the creation of
Anomie Theory.
 Relevance
As initially developed by Durkheim
the concept of anomie refers to a
condition of relative normlessness, in
a society or group.
The core of Durkheims theory lies
with the concept of social fact,
especially with such nonmaterial
social facts as the collective
conscience, collective
representations and social currents.
 Relevance
Durkheim was very concerned with what he
perceived as the lack of morality in French
society, but its safe to say that in all societies
today and in the future we will wrestle with
the issue of morality.
Cult of Personality- taking over for religion.
Crime serves a functional role in society
because it helps to promote social change
when a violation of a law caused such a public
outrage that demands for change occurred.
(Example, Rosa Parks)
 Relevance
It can be argued that Durkheim
envisioned globalization, Global
Solidarity.

Emile Durkheim was and remains one

of the greatest social thinkers of all
time and his works will remain
relevant well into the third
millennium.
 Contributions and Theories
He sought to construct one of the first
scientific approaches to social
phenomena.
Said that traditional societies were held
together by the fact that everyone was
more or less the same.
Along with Herbert Spencer, he was one of
the first to conceptualize the idea of
Functionalism:
Functionalism views society as a system of
interdependent parts whose functions
contribute to the stability and survival of the
system.
Thought that society was more than the
sum of its parts, and coined the term
social facts:
Social Facts have an existence all their own,
and are not bound to the action of
individuals.
 Contributions and Theories
Durkheim on Education:
Believed that education served many functions:
1) To reinforce social solidarity
Pledging allegiance: makes individuals feel part of a group and
therefore less likely to break rules.
2) To maintain social roles
School is a society in miniature: it has a similar hierarchy, rules,
expectations to the outside world, and trains people to fulfill roles.
3) To maintain division of labor
School sorts students into skill groups, encouraging students to take
up employment in fields best suited to their abilities.

He was professionally employed to

train teachers, so he used his
ability to shape Frances curriculum
to spread the instruction of
sociology.
 Contributions and Theories
Durkheims Anomie:
Anomie is the breakdown of social norms regulating behavior.
Durkheim and other sociological theorists coined anomie as a
reaction against, or retreat from, the social controls of society.
All deviant behavior stems from a state of anomie, including
suicide.
Durkheim on Crime:
His views on crime were unconventional at the time.
Crime serves as a social function, meaning that it has a purpose
in society.
He saw crime as being able to release certain social tensions
and so have a cleansing or purging effect in society.