METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM AND HOLISM | ANURAG JOSEPH

METHODOLOGICAL HOLISM AND INDIVIDUALISM

Methodological holism:

• Durkheim: when a social fact is reduced to an individual that explanation is wrong

• In simple terms methodological holism or collectivism focuses on holistic approach to
understand social phenomenon.
• Social structure is responsible for individual actions.
• Understanding individuals with context to the whole.
• More of an impersonal approach that abstracts the intricacies forming a general
contextualization.
• The approach offers macro level explanations.
• Invokes social phenomenon such as Culture, society, institutions

For example:

The unions protested because the government wanted to lower the national minimum wage

The rise in unemployment led to a higher crime rate

The recent protest in our country unites different communities and cultures under a common
umbrella cause.

• A socio-cultural phenomenon is greater than the sum of its constituent parts.

• Explaining the individual and actual by contextualizing it within the general, the collective,
the impersonal.
• It blurs the complexities of individuals while focus on a more homogenous approach where
the whole comes first and parts in context to it.

Methodological individualism:

• Max Webber: If a general sociological concept cannot be illuminated in terms of chance that
individuals would act in a certain way, that concept should be abandoned
• The social phenomenon is formed by human individuals.
• The social entities like Protestantism, Capitalism , Socialism etc. are ideological while what is
real and can be felt and touch is the individuals.
• A state is nothing but individuals who act at certain levels of authorities
• An investigation of or society or collective unit must be through the actions and experiences
of the individuals.
• Study of whole is posterior to study of individuals.
• A collective operates through intermediary of one or several individuals whose actions are
related to collective as secondary source.

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 METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM AND HOLISM | ANURAG JOSEPH

Example:

1. To understand a car, we first understand its functioning and parts.

2. The hangman not the state executes the criminal.

Here’s another example to understand both the concepts better:

When you see this image everything appears uniform and all the heads appear black,uniforms white
thus forming a strong generalisation lets say

“class is in white uniform and all have black hair”

This a more holistic view

Now when I look from a different angle everyone has their own indvidual
features,expressions,bodylanguage and action.

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 METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM AND HOLISM | ANURAG JOSEPH

“Amongst the class student Rahul is laughing,ridhi is fiddling with her hair,Dev is praying and so
on…”

Thus understanding class from an individualistic perspective.

Image 1 Image 2

REFLECTION:

I associate to the individualistic approach more because even though it has complex intricacies that
might be hard to decipher but they can’t be neglected. The individualistic approach provides a more
personal insight and variation in perspective. The differences thus can be appreciated and observed
to form a more dynamic social structure.

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