Sociology Canadian 8th Edition

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Chapter 4

Society
I. Society.
Society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share culture. This chapter
explores four important theoretical views explaining the nature of human societies, focusing on
the work of Gerhard and Jean Lenski, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim.

II. Gerhard and Jean Lenski: Society and Technology.

Gerhard Lenski (2004) focuses on sociocultural evolution, the changes that occur as a society
acquires new technology. According to Lenski, the more technological information a society
has, the faster it changes. New technology sends ripples of change through a society’s entire
way of life. Lenski’s work identifies five types of societies based on their level of technology.
A. Hunting and gathering societies use simple tools to hunt animals and gather
vegetation. Until about twelve thousand years ago, all humans were hunter-gatherers.
At this level of sociocultural evolution, food production is relatively inefficient;
groups are small, scattered, and usually nomadic. Society is built on kinship, and

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc. 4-1

 specialization is minimal, centered chiefly around age and gender. These societies are
quite egalitarian and rarely wage war.
B. Horticultural and pastoral societies employ a technology based on using hand tools
to raise crops. In very fertile and also in arid regions, pastoralism, technology that
supports the domestication of animals, develops instead of horticulture. In either case,
these strategies encourage much larger societies to emerge. Material surpluses
develop, allowing some people to become full-time specialists in crafts, trade, or
religion. Expanding productive technology creates social inequality.
C. Agrarian societies are based on agriculture, the technology of large-scale cultivation
using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful sources of energy. These societies
initiated civilization as they invented irrigation, the wheel, writing, numbers, and
metallurgy. Agrarian societies can build up enormous food surpluses and grow to an
unprecedented size. Occupational specialization increases, money emerges, and social
life becomes more individualistic and impersonal. Inequality becomes much more
pronounced. Religion underlies the expanding power of the state.
D. Industrial societies are based on industrialism, the production of goods using
advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery. At this stage, societies begin to
change quickly. The growth of factories erodes many traditional values, beliefs, and
customs. Prosperity and health improve dramatically. Occupational specialization and
cultural diversity increase. The family loses much of its importance and appears in
many different forms. In the early stages of industrialization, social inequality
increases. Later on, while poverty continues to be a serious problem, most people’s
standard of living rises. Demands for political participation also escalate.
E. Postindustrial societies are based on technology that supports an information-based
economy. In this phase, industrial production declines while occupations that process
information using computers expand. The emergence of postindustrialism
dramatically changes a society’s occupational structure.
F. The limits of technology. While expanding technology can help to solve many
existing social problems, it creates new problems even as it remedies old ones.

III. Karl Marx: Society and Conflict.

Karl Marx’s analysis stresses social conflict, the struggle between segments of society over
valued resources.
A. Society and production.
1. Marx divided society into profit-oriented capitalists, people who own
factories and other productive enterprises, and the proletarians, people who
provide labor necessary to operate factories and other productive
enterprises. Marx believed that conflict between these two classes was
inevitable in a system of capitalist production. This conflict could end only
when people changed capitalism itself.
2. All societies are composed of social institutions, defined as the major
spheres of social life, or societal subsystems, organized to meet human needs.
3. He considered the economy the infrastructure on which all other social
institutions, i.e., the superstructure, were based. The institutions of modern
societies, he argued, tend to reinforce capitalist domination.

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 4. Marx’s approach is based on materialism, which asserts that the production of
material goods shapes all aspects of society.
5. According to Marx, most people in modern societies do not pay much
attention to social conflict, because they are trapped in false consciousness,
explanations of social problems that blame the shortcomings of individuals
rather than the flaws of society.
B. Conflict and history. Marx argued that early hunting and gathering societies were
based on highly egalitarian primitive communism, and that society became less equal
as it moved toward modern industrial capitalism dominated by the bourgeoisie class
(capitalists).
C. Capitalism and class conflict. Industrial capitalism contains two major social
classes—the ruling class and the oppressed—reflecting the two basic positions in the
productive system. Marx viewed class conflict, antagonism between entire classes
over the distribution of wealth and power in society, as inevitable.
1. In order for conflict to occur, the proletariat must achieve class
consciousness, workers’ recognition of their unity as a class in opposition to
capitalists and, ultimately, to capitalism itself. Then workers must organize
themselves and rise in revolution. Internally divided by their competitive
search for profits, the capitalists would be unable to unify to effectively resist
their revolution.
D. Capitalism and alienation. Marx also condemned capitalism for promoting alienation,
the experience of isolation resulting from powerlessness.
1. Marx argued that industrial capitalism alienated workers in four ways:
a. Alienation from the act of working.
b. Alienation from the products of work.
c. Alienation from other workers.
d. Alienation from human potential.
SEEING SOCIOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE – What Makes Quebec a “Distinct
Society” Within Canada? (p.94-95) – a cohesive Canadian identity is problematic
because there are “distinct” societies within the country.
E. Revolution. Marx was certain that eventually a socialist revolution would overthrow
the capitalist system.

IV. Max Weber: The Rationalization of Society.

In contrast to Marx’s pessimistic view, Weber’s work reflects the idealist perspective that
human ideas shape society. To make comparisons, he used ideal types, abstract statements
of
the essential characteristics of any social phenomenon.
A. Two world views: Tradition and Rationality. Weber wrote that members of
preindustrial societies embrace tradition, sentiments and beliefs passed from
generation to generation, while industrial societies are characterized by rationality,
deliberate, matter-of-fact calculation of the most efficient means to accomplish a
particular task.
1. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism both reflect the
rationalization of society, the historical change from tradition to rationality
as the dominant mode of human thought.

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 2. WINDOW ON THE WORLD—Global Map 4–1 (p. 97) High Technology in
Global Perspective. While countries with traditional cultures either cannot
afford, ignore, or sometimes resist technological innovation, nations with
highly rationalized ways of life quickly embrace such change.
B. Is capitalism rational? Weber considered industrial capitalism the essence of
rationality, since capitalists pursue profit in whatever ways they can. Marx, however,
believed capitalism was irrational because it failed to meet the basic needs of most of
the people.
C. Weber’s great thesis: Protestantism and capitalism. Weber traced the roots of modern
rationality to Calvinist Protestantism, which preached predestination and the notion
that success in one’s calling testified to one’s place among the saved. Weber’s
analysis demonstrates the ability of ideas to shape society.
D. Rational social organization. Weber identified seven characteristics of rational social
organizations:
1. Distinctive social institutions.
2. Large-scale organizations.
3. Specialized tasks.
4. Personal discipline.
5. Awareness of time.
6. Technical competence.
7. Impersonality.
E. The growth of rational bureaucracy was a key element in the origin of modern society.
F. Weber feared that the rationalization of society carried with it a tendency toward
dehumanization or alienation. He was pessimistic about society’s ability to escape
this trend.

V. Emile Durkheim: Society and Function.

For Emile Durkheim, a social fact is a pattern that is rooted in society rather than in the
experience of individuals. Society is an elaborate, collective organism, far more than the sum of
its parts. It shapes individuals’ behaviour, thought, and feeling.
A. The function of a social fact extends beyond its effect on individuals and helps society
itself to function as a complex system.
B. People build personalities by internalizing social facts.
C. Durkheim warned of anomie, a societal condition in which individuals receive little
moral guidance.
D. The division of labour, or specialized economic activity, has increased throughout
human history.
1. Traditional societies are characterized by a strong collective conscience or
mechanical solidarity, social bonds based on shared moral sentiments that
unite members of preindustrial societies.
2. In modern societies, mechanical solidarity declines and is partially replaced
by organic solidarity, social bonds, based on specialization, that unite
members of industrial societies. This shift is accompanied by a decline in the
level of trust between members of the society.

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 E. SOCIOLOGY AND THE MEDIA BOX—The Information Revolution: What Would
Durkheim, Weber, and Marx Have Thought? (p.102) - Durkheim, Weber, and Marx
greatly improved our understanding of industrial societies.
VI. Critical Review: Four Visions of Society.
A. What holds societies together?
B. How have societies changed?
C. Why do societies change?
Chapter Objectives
1) Define society.
2) Explain how Lenski uses technological
development as a criterion for classifying
societies at different levels of evolutionary
development and identify five types of
societies according to their technology.
3) Summarize how technology shapes
societies at different stages of sociological
evolution.
4) Be familiar with the principal
characteristics of hunting and gathering,
horticultural, pastoral, agrarian industrial, and
post-industrial societies.
5) Explain the central role of social conflict in
Marx’s theory.
6) Outline Karl Marx’s model of society.
7) Explain Marx’s analysis of conflict
throughout history.
8) Cite Marx’s ways in which capitalism
alienates workers.
9) Explain Weber’s notion of ideal types.
10) Examine how Weber used the concept of
the rationalization of society as a means of
understanding and interpreting historical
change.
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
11) Identify seven characteristics of a rational
social organization.
12) Define Durkheim’s concepts of structure
by function and personality.
13) Explain how, according to Durkheim, an
expansion in a society’s division of labor
promotes a shift from mechanical to organic
solidarity.
14) Identify major similarities and differences
among the analyses of society developed by
Lenski, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim.
Essay Topics
1) Provide an example of each type of society
outlined by Lenski. Which would you most like
to live in? Why?
2) To what extent does contemporary
Canadian society still reflect the industrial
model and in what ways are we now fully
postindustrial?
3) Identify several modern examples of false
consciousness. What are some of the
consequences of widespread false
consciousness in a society?
4) Differentiate between class and false
consciousness. Can you identify examples of
false consciousness that you have experienced
in your life?
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5) Have you or your friends or family worked
in jobs which were alienating? How accurately
does Marx describe the characteristics of these
jobs?
6) According to Marx, how does capitalism
alienate workers? How did Marx feel that
workers could overcome their alienation?
7) What ideas from Marx remain relevant to
contemporary society and what ideas must be
discarded in the wake of the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the Marxist societies of
Eastern Europe?
8) What vision of society do you hold? Do you
think societies are getting better or worse?
Defend your position.
9) What are the characteristics of a rational
social organization? Do you think that the
changes that have resulted from the widespread
rationalization of society have improved
people’s lives or made them worse?
10) How can modern societies reduce the level
of anomie? Can this be done without limiting
people’s individual freedom?
11) What have we gained and what have we
lost as our society has moved from mechanical
to organic solidarity?
12) How did the Protestant Reformation lead to
the rise of capitalism?
13) Why is a cohesive Canadian identity so
problematic?
14) What policies or programs might you
develop to encourage a more “Canadian”
identity?
Using the ASA Journal Teaching Sociology
in Your Classroom
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
As students approach the sociological analysis
of society and social organization, it is hoped
that they will develop the ability to use the
knowledge they acquire to make sense of their
experiences. R. Marie Bricher offers an
interesting strategy for enhancing students’
“sociological wisdom” (“Teaching
Introductory Sociology: Using Aspects of the
Classroom as Sociological Events,” Teaching
Sociology, 20, October 1992: 270-275).
Bricher regards the classroom as a “strategic
research site” wherein “…students apply
sociological insights and grow in their ability
to recognize ‘social facts’ such as social
structure and institutionalized patterns of
organization or behaviour.” In her article,
Bricher discusses how she introduces her
students to a sociological perspective and
makes some valuable suggestions about how
key sociological concepts can be applied to
classroom events. You may benefit from her
approach to the study of society.
Student Exercises
1. Go to http://www.ifets.info/others/ and search
through some of the recent issues of the Journal
of Educational Technology and Society. Read
one of the articles and write a two-page
summary of the findings and conclusions you
find.
2. Select two of the characteristics of bureaucracy
as identified by Max Weber. Provide and
example from either your workplace or your
college for these two characteristics,
illustrating rationality, irrationality, and
limitations.
3. In the book Cultural Anthropology:
Adaptations, Structures, and Meanings, David
Haines presents a great deal of information
about hunting and gathering, horticultural,
pastoral, and agrarian societies (see chapters 2-
5 in the section of the book called
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 “Adaptations”). Select one of these chapters
and write a two-page paper on the important
characteristics of societies that practice the type
of subsistence strategy (adaptation) you select.
Discuss in your paper the extent to which
Gerhard Lenski’s model of societal
development relates to what is presented in the
Haines book.
4. For an example of a people living on the
margins of society, Google “smokey mountain
dump” and learn about the history of this
landfill in the Philippines in which hundreds of
people lived before it was closed a few years
ago. This can be used to apply Durkheim’s
“division of labor” model.
Supplemental Lecture Material
The Postindustrial Workplace
The challenges that workers must negotiate in
a postindustrial society are well documented.
On the other hand this new work world raises
new challenges for supervisors. It is harder
today to insist that all employers be at their
posts at a specified time and stay there for a
specified length of time. Requests for
exceptions, conditions, and special schedules
are growing.
Diane Crispell, Executive Editor of
American Demographics, offers five rules for
managers to keep in mind when addressing
workplace issues. The shift from time-based to
task-based performance is occurring fastest in
industries that rely most on online
communication. Crispell points out that this is
because workers who use computers “can
switch from work to play seamlessly – playing
games, chatting on bulletin boards, and
checking the weather forecast before heading
out on vacation.” In an environment conducive
to even mild levels of “time theft,” supervisors
are well advised to measure performance in
terms of quality and productivity, not in the
number of hours worked or when work is
performed. In some areas of the labor force,
performance will always depend on showing
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
up on time and putting in a solid shift (e.g.,
manufacturers, retailers, and construction
workers). But in financial services,
government, and a variety of other
“information industries,” many workers are
already measuring up to quality and
productivity standards instead of punching a
clock, and the number is certain to grow.
Crispell also contends that worker’s
appearances don’t always count – for “behind-
the-scenes workers,” the quality of work
matters much more than the cut of the clothes,
how people wear their hair, or whether workers
have wrinkles or gray hair. Even for frontline
workers whose appearance does count,
employers need to be flexible about the
“uniform” they impose, “lest they encounter
resistance from individually-minded workers.”
Today, the line between individual and
organizational responsibility has become
blurred. Employees now expect employers to
accommodate their personal lives. To a large
extent, baby boomers and younger workers
bring their personal lives to work out of
necessity. When both father and mother are
employed, or when a single adult is raising
children, work schedules can be upset at any
moment. (According to the Census Bureau,
four in ten preschool children live with two
parents who work, and 18 percent live with a
single parent who works.) Offering child-care
assistance is an effective way to keep valued
workers on the job more often and keep them
focused on their work. Ignoring the issue is
certain to bring about increased work absence,
increased turnover, and stressed-out workers
worrying about children who are home alone.
Another emerging workplace issue is an
increasing number of middle-aged baby
boomers who find themselves responsible for
an aging parent. While not as great a problem
as the child-care dilemma, it’s one that is
destined to grow. (According to American
Demographic’s projections, the number of
households headed by someone aged 75 will
increase by 32 percent between 1995 and
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2010.) Coordinating business travel with
family concerns is one way, according to
Crispell, that employers may ease the angst
associated with work-related travel. An
employee who can combine a business trip
with a visit to an elderly parent or sibling will
be eager to make repeated trips to the area, and
will probably be content to stay there for a
longer period of time.
A major challenge in today’s workplace is
employers helping employees balance their
work and personal lives, but they also have to
balance the needs of workers and customers
with those of the organization. Crispell
suggests that “Perhaps the overriding rule
should be to minimize the rules.”
Source
Diane Crispell. “How to Manage A Chaotic
Workplace.” American Demographics (June
1996): 50-52.
Discussion Questions
1) Is it reasonable to expect employers to
accommodate employees’ personal life needs?
Why or why not?
2) How do race/ethnicity, social class, and
gender impact on issues that employees must
address in conjunction with workplace
responsibilities?
3) What are some issues that persons who
have their office in their home must negotiate?
What are the pros and the cons of such an
arrangement?
Supplemental Lecture Material
Marx's Concept of Alienation versus
Durkheim's Concept of Anomie
Both Marx and Durkheim, as was suggested in
Chapter 1, were fundamentally guided in their
choice of topics to study by their desire to
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
understand and try to solve the problems that
arose as the societies in which they lived
moved from a preindustrial to an industrial
state. For Marx, one of the most serious of these
problems was what he termed alienation; for
Durkheim, the more critical problem was
anomie. While both of these important
concepts call forth images of profound human
discontent, and while both are often seen as
increasingly prevalent in modern society, they
are fundamentally distinct and in certain ways
antagonistic. An examination of these two
notions may help us to better understand the
underlying differences between the visions of
society developed by these two seminal
sociological thinkers.
Marx’s notion of alienation reflects a
perception that people in modern society are
becoming increasingly unable to control the
social forces that shape their lives. For Marx, it
is an essential part of human existence that we
collectively create the social world in which we
live. Governments, economic systems,
educational institutions, and even religions are
the products of human activity and
consciousness. We created them and, in
principle, we can change them. But over time,
and especially as societies become more
complex (and more capitalistic), people begin
to lose track of the fact that they have created
the society in which they live. Social
institutions begin to be perceived as
oppressive. Instead of something we shape and
create, they come to be seen as, in effect,
coercive external realities to which we must
conform. Ultimately, we come to feel
powerless to influence the circumstances of our
own lives. Marx felt that this progressive
process of alienation results from the capitalist
mode of economic production, but it could
equally well be argued that it is inherent in any
sufficiently large-scale, economically
advanced modern society.
Marx saw modern man as alienated in
many dimensions of life. For instance, in the
world of work, the assembly line serves as an
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excellent example of objectified alienation.
Humans created it, yet the individual worker
standing on the line feels totally powerless,
unable to alter the character of the task he or
she is compelled to perform or even the pace at
which the work must be done. Furthermore,
workers lose a sense of how their contribution
to the overall effort promotes the final end of
the manufacturing process — they feel not only
powerless but also that their work is
meaningless. Beyond that, Marx notes that
highly alienated workers also lose a sense of
commonality with their fellow workers. They
feel not only controlled, but also isolated.
Ultimately, highly alienated workers come to
lose the sense that they can control any aspect
of their lives, whether at work or at home, and
become highly self-estranged. Such people are
profoundly discontent, prone to alcohol and
drug abuse, mental illness, violence, and the
support of extreme social and political
movements, in addition to experiencing other
pathologies.
What occurs in the workplace is echoed in
other dimensions of life. For example, people
who are politically alienated feel powerless to
affect important decisions made by elected
leaders. The government they elect comes to be
seen as “they,” not “we.” People no longer
perceive any value in participating in politics,
and they no longer derive a sense of shared
identity with others through joint political
activity.
Note that, for Marx, alienation ultimately
results from a societal situation in which there
are too many rules, rules the individual feels are
being imposed upon him or her, despite the fact
that ultimately all of these rules are the
products of human social activity.
Durkheim also sees a strongly negative
quality creeping into life in modern industrial
societies, but he diagnoses the situation quite
differently. For him, the problem stems from
the destruction of the close ties that bonded the
individual to family, church, and community in
the traditional, preindustrial village. In such a
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
society, high in mechanical solidarity,
individuals knew exactly what was expected of
them. There was little or no normative
ambiguity. But with the advent of the urban and
industrial revolutions — the same changes
Marx saw as leading to alienation — Durkheim
saw the new urban industrial worker as subject
to a breakdown of the moral consensus that was
characteristic of the village community. Thrust
into industrial cities in jarring juxtaposition to
dozens of different subcultures, members of the
developing modern societies of Western
Europe and America began to lose their moral
compasses. With the decline of the absolute
and inflexible norms found in traditional
society, modern man was cast adrift on a
relativistic ocean where right and wrong were
no longer easily defined. Durkheim called this
condition of society anomie, from the Latin a
(without) nomos (order). In a state of anomie,
often defined as normlessness, people in
modern society drift from one definition of
proper behaviour to the next, never sure they
are acting as they ought to. The result of this
endemic moral rootlessness, according to
Durkheim, is social pathology much like that
envisioned by Marx as the consequence of
alienation: drug abuse, family dissolution, high
rates of crime and mental illness, high suicide
rates, and so forth.
But while alienation and anomie may both
be endemic to industrial societies and may lead
to similar behavioural problems, they are
fundamentally different concepts. An alienated
individual is one who is exposed to too many
rules, to too strict a set of constraints. Far from
being in a state of drift, the alienated individual
is oversteered, overguided, dominated, and
ultimately crushed by the very society that he
and others like him established. In contrast, the
anomic individual is in a state of moral free-
fall, desperately anxious for structure or
constraint but unable to find enough moral
guidance to be able to know how to live his or
her life. The problem is that society is too
weak, not too strong. People who are alienated
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know exactly what is expected of them, but find
the yoke of these expectations crushing. People
with anomie yearn for the guiding hand of
society but find only a chaotic freedom that
fails entirely to liberate. For Marx, the problem
is the powerlessness of the individual to shape
or even resist the coercion of society; for
Durkheim, modern people desperately wish for
society to be more, not less, coercive.
Ultimately, Marx’s vision is of people striving
to free themselves from the fetters of excessive
regulation, while Durkheim suggests that
people cannot live happy or productive lives
unless properly guided by the invisible hand of
society.
Discussion Questions
1) Which vision — Marx’s or Durkheim’s —
strikes you as a more accurate explanation for
the numerous social pathologies that
characterize modern industrial and post-
industrial societies?
2) How can we attempt to remedy the problem
of alienation? How can we try to reduce
anomie? Is it possible to achieve a balance
between too much and too little normative
constraint, so that people can be neither
alienated nor anomic?
Supplemental Lecture Material
The People that Time Forgot
Deep in the rain forest of Irian Jaya, a province
of Indonesia in the western half of New Guinea,
live a people whose contact with the modern
world has been virtually nonexistent. That is
about to end, however. Vast forests are
becoming a natural resource targeted for
cutting. Once they disappear, so will the
Korowai, whose existence depends on those
trees.
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
As a matter of fact, the forest itself is where
they live, in huts constructed of branches and
bark, high up in the trees, and accessible only
by notched climbing poles. For clothing, they
use leaves, palm fronds and rattan. The forest
also provides game for hunting.
The Korowai live as perhaps our ancestors
might have lived. Each clan is ruled by a war
chief. Alliances are formed through trade or
arranged marriages involving a bride price.
Calling themselves Lords of the Garden, the
Korowai combine hunting and gathering
techniques with horticulture and some
pastoralism. They raise pigs, cultivate gardens
of many types of banana and sweet potatoes,
and tend sago fields where the women work
during the day. The sago is food and, as are
beetle larvae, a delicacy. The Korowai chop
down palms with stone axes, then bore holes in
the trunks. Scarab beetles lay eggs in those
holes. When the grubs hatch, they are pulled
out of the holes and baked, wrapped in banana
leaves.
One aspect of Korowai life is the never-
ending clan warfare generally fought over
women or pigs, and often part of a chain of old
offenses to be revenged. Battles always take
place during the day since spirits at night are
hostile. Special arrows designed for killing
humans are used. "A yard of weathered
bamboo is lashed with vine to a handspan of
bone with six sharp barbs carved on each side.
This ensures the arrowhead will cause terrible
damage when removed from the victim."
Unless the dead are carried away by their own
clan, they are then eaten. So are men or women
who transgress against clan members by
stealing pigs or committing adultery.
Cannibalism, however, is not the major
killer of the Korowai. Accidents, disease, and
war take the greatest toll, and life expectancy is
only 35. So poor are the chances for infants,
that children do not even receive names until
they are about 18 months old.
Yet though their way of life may be
precarious, the Korowai value it deeply, as is
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revealed by the ceremonial overtones of the
grub feast. "The grub feast binds us closer,
makes us strong. Always remember you are a
Korowai.... Never abandon our way of life."
Yet soon, as has been prophesied, the lale
— the white-skinned ghost demons — will
come and take away the Korowais' trees, their
land. It will be the end of the Korowai world.
Just as the prophecy foretold. . . .
Source
Raffaele, Paul. (August, 1996). "The People
That Time Forgot." Reader's Digest, Vol. 149
No. 892: 101-107.
Discussion Questions
1) Using Gerhard and Jean Lenski's
categories, characterize Korowai society,
discussing various social institutions typical for
such a society. Should efforts be undertaken to
save their way of life, or is their disappearance
acceptable as a function of sociocultural
evolution?
2) In your opinion, if the Korowai are
ultimately deprived of the rain forest, what
should be done for them? Is there a way to save
them? Can they survive in the modern world?
3) Activity: Either read an ethnography or
check out a video to watch on a society with
rudimentary technology, then write a sketch of
that society using Lenski’s insights.
Supplemental Lecture Material
Social Facts
Chapter 4 defines Emile Durkheim’s concept
of social fact as “any part of society that is
argued to have an objective existence apart
from the individual and is therefore able to
influence individual behaviour.”
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
Among the interesting types of social facts
we all come into contact with in modern
society are the rates of impaired driving
collected by the Road Safety Directorate of
Transport Canada. A consideration of the
character of impaired driving rates may help
to further illuminate Durkheim’s conception
of social facts.
Impaired driving rates are social facts in
two general senses. First, they reflect social
processes of definition and data collection.
Second, and more closely in line with
Durkheim’s point, once published, these rates
take on a sort of objective life of their own
and can themselves significantly influence
ongoing social reality. Let’s consider each of
these points.
First, impaired driving (ID) rates are the
products of human social activity. Rather
obviously, they represent a quantitative
summation of the (illegal) behaviours of large
numbers of human beings acting in social
context. Drunk driving is just as much a
process of social interaction as a cocktail party
or a classroom lecture. However, ID figures
are social in other, less superficial ways. The
acts tallied are crimes because they have been
defined as such by legislatures. The
definitions that are used to characterize certain
acts as one type of crime or another are also
social products. In some cases the distinctions
between impaired and non-impaired driving
may seem arbitrary. In Canada today impaired
driving offences “include operating a motor
vehicle, vessel or aircraft while impaired or
with more than 80 mg of alcohol in the blood;
impaired driving causing death or bodily
harm; and failing or refusing to provide a
breath or blood sample” (p. 269). The
allowable level of alcohol has varied over time
and varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. A
request that a driver take a breathalyser test is
made on the basis of a more or less subjective
assessment of observed driving skills,
presence of a sufficient number of police on
the relevant duty, and in all likelihood the
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“status” of the car and driver. ID rates are
social because they are counted and entered by
human beings – police officers – operating in
specific social contexts.
There is every reason to believe that the
process of data collection is strongly
influenced by these social contexts; for
example, police officers may feel compelled
to informally maximize the figures that they
pass on if there is a strong feeling in the
community that the local police department is
not doing a good job. None of this necessarily
reflects deliberate deceit, but rather suggests
that the data collection process, much like the
process of defining certain acts as crimes and
fitting particular acts to these definitions, is an
inherently social activity.
But when Durkheim speaks of rates of
behaviour as social facts, he means more than
that they are generated by social activity.
Once published and disseminated, they take
on a life of their own and have the ability in
many ways to influence future social
behaviours (for example, ID figures may
influence the way in which the citizenry views
the police’s crime-fighting behaviour and
affect the level of support for additional
financial and technical assistance). Police are
not the only people who are aware of the
social importance of crime rates as social
facts. Politicians, especially conservatives,
have long relied on public concern over rising
crime rates as a means of gaining votes.
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
The point, in summary, is that ID crime
rates are fundamentally social, not only in the
way in which they are constructed, but, even
more significantly, in the way they influence
the social behaviour of many individuals and
groups in society. They both reflect social
realities and affect the society in which they
arise.
Source
Holly Johnson. ‘‘Impaired Driving Offenses.”
Canadian Social Trends. Toronto: Thompson
Educational Pub. Inc., pp. 267-70.
Discussion Questions
1) Child abuse is a more subjective concept
than ID definitions of crime. Consider how
our society’s rising level of concern over
child abuse has led to the social generation
of child abuse statistics, and how the
publication of figures suggesting ever-
increasing levels of abuse has served to
further intensify public concern over this
issue. In what ways are child abuse
statistics social facts—how do they cause
changes in the society?
2) Why do the rates of ID vary from province
to province?
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