Emile Durkheim

France
1858–1917
 Society: Moral Order
Durkheim was interested in the question of social (moral)
order
• How social order is achieved and maintained amidst
social and economic change
• Views society as a complex system of component parts:
o Parts interdependent
o Parts interrelated
• All parts necessary for the functioning of society as a
whole
• Structural functionalism
 Scientific Sociology
• Sociology: “science of civilization” (HN 149)
• Sociology, the study of social facts
• Social facts: Social phenomena that are
o External to the individual
o Collective, independent of the individual
• Beliefs, tendencies, and practices of the group taken
collectively
• Not just statistical facts; social facts more encompassing
• Ways of acting, thinking, and feeling shape, structure,
and constrain individual and social behavior
 Sociology: Study of Society
Society is greater than the sum of individuals who
comprise society
• Society has its own reality – social relations,
organizations, collective social forces
• These comprise a distinct collective reality; a sui
generis reality
 How Should We Study Society?
• We study society by studying social facts
• We study social facts by considering social facts as
things
• Social facts have an objective (thing-like) existence in
society
o They can be studied objectively
o Their objective manifestations can be observed
o Indicators of a thing – of any social phenomenon –
can be substituted when the phenomenon itself
cannot be directly observed
 Studying Social Facts
• Following Durkheim, sociologists use measures or
indicators of various phenomena in their research
• We cannot directly see social integration, but it can
be measured using indicators assessing
o Individuals’ social ties to others
o Their frequency of interaction with others
o Their participation in various social/community
groups
 Social Facts and Social Problems
• All social facts are amenable to objective study
• All social facts can be studied independent of the sociologist’s
attitudes toward the phenomenon being studied
• Social facts include marriage, divorce, religion, crime,
homelessness, education
• Social “problems” (e.g., homelessness) are sociologically
“normal”
• They are part of social life; have a collective existence; impact
the collective social reality
• Some social problems, though normal social facts, can
become pathological and threaten social order if the
comparative incidence of a particular phenomenon (e.g.,
unemployment) becomes abnormally high
 Human Nature and Society’s Nature
• Human appetites are individualistic or self-centered
• All humans have basic selfish biological drives that we
seek to satisfy
• Life in society means that individual appetites have to be
curbed; social life necessitates our responsiveness to
others
• Social life requires that we attach ourselves to
“something other than ourselves”
• Attachment to others – social ties, social bonds –
produces solidarity (social morality); solidarity with the
group/society
• Solidarity maintains society; maintains its order and
cohesiveness
 Societal Constraints
• Socialization: Teaches individuals the norms and expectations
of the collectivity
• We habituate to the obligations and customs of the collectivity
• Society imposes its expectations and norms on individual and
collective behavior
• “When I perform my duties as a a brother, a husband or a
citizen …”
• The rules of behavior are society’s rules; they come from
society and constrain social behavior
• Rules, norms, customs, expectations, are all socially inherited;
they collectively exist and are external to, and independent of,
individuals
• The collective force exerted by existing social facts makes social
change difficult; social change can only emerge from society
 Societal Transformation
• Different types of societies produce
o Different societal conditions
o Different social facts
o Different forms of social organization
• Traditional versus modern society
• What social forces maintain solidarity, social order,
cohesion, in different types of societies?
Transformation from Agricultural to
Industrial Society

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4As0e4de-rI
 Traditional Society
Pre-industrial or rural society/community
• Sameness in social structure and relationships
• Occupational breadth, not specialization
• Shared backgrounds, family, occupational, and
cultural histories
• Overlapping social ties and relationships
 Traditional Society
• Strong collective conscience
• Deeply felt shared attachments and beliefs
• Regulated expectations and behavior
• Low level of individualism
• Social control exerted through repressive sanctions
(e.g. gossip)
Mechanical solidarity; a social cohesion produced by
shared overlapping relationships/beliefs.
 Modern Society
• A different character, structure, and intensity in
modern urban society than in traditional or rural
communities/societies
• www.nytimes.com/video/2012/07/24/nyregion/100
000001674657/the-subway-shuffle.html
 Characteristics of Modern Society
• Industrialization/urbanization/population density
• Geographical and social mobility
• Cultural diversity
• Specialized division of labor
• Requires individualism
• Produces interdependence
Organic solidarity; social cohesion from
interdependence rather than sameness
 Division of Labor
• The division of occupational labor as a mechanism
producing worker/social interdependence
• www.bls.gov/soc/home.htm
 Social Interdependence
Social interdependence: contractual, but also moral
• Contracts alone do not regulate and produce
interdependence
• Contacts are expressions of social morality; of how
society defines expectations and obligations
• Contracts
o Do not have power independent of society
o Have legitimacy because they reflect and affirm
societal expectations and customs
o Originate in society
o function to protect social relations, society
Summary: Traditional and Modern
Societies
Traditional society Modern society
• Pre-industrial/rural • Industrialized, urban
• Sameness • Diversity
• Strong collective • Weak collective
conscience conscience
• Limited division of • Specialized division of
labor labor
• Repressive, punitive law • Contract-type, restitutive
law
Mechanical solidarity Organic solidarity
 Social Conditions and Suicide
Suicide:
• A social fact
• Varies inversely with the degree of social integration
• Durkheim’s sociological study of suicide highlights
o The significance of social interdependence
o How social structures attach individuals to society
o How different social conditions produce different
social consequences
 Suicide in Tightly Bound Societies
Altruistic suicide:
• Produced under societal conditions in which
individuals are excessively tied to the society; over-
attachment to social groups
• The strong press of the collective
conscience/community norms
• Becomes obligatory due to loss of honor in the
community (e.g., in Japanese society)
 Modern, Egoistical Conditions
Egoistic suicide:
• Societal conditions with a high emphasis on
individualism; self-oriented achievement
• Focus on the self leaves little room for the
development/maintenance of social attachments
• Social relationships and social groups
o Function as constraints against individualist
(egoistic) appetites
o Protect the individual from detaching from society
 Constraining Individualist Tendencies

Some social structures/forms of social organization more likely than

others to exert a constraining-integrating force on the individual:
• Marriage
• Parenthood
• Church
o Not religious doctrine per se, but variation in church
structure:
o The Catholic Church has a more layered
communal/hierarchical structure than the Protestant
Church
o Absorbs rather than isolates the individual
o Catholics more tightly integrated than Protestants
o Lower incidence of suicide among Catholics than
Protestants.
 Anomic Social Conditions
Anomic suicide:
• Produced by societal conditions of upheaval,
rootlessness
• The norms and anchors in place are disrupted and
overturned by some unanticipated
occurrence/event/crisis, e.g.
o Terrorist attacks
o Natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricane, fires,
tsunamis)
o Rapid economic change (economic recession or
economic growth)
 Anomie and Social Cohesion
• Societal anomie, societal disturbance, is not solely
linked to suicide
• Societal anomie can also produce new bonds of
cohesion:
o People want to be with other people
o They unite around a shared grief/common cause
• Independent of social anomie, social abnormalities
or social “problems” (excessive inequality, excessive
individualism) can threaten social cohesion
 Religion
• Religion: a social fact
• Interest in the relation between religion and social
integration
• Broad definition of religion, of the sacred
• All societies divide things into two categories:
o Sacred: all things set apart as special; have high
symbolic value; society demands reverence/awe
toward them
o Profane: ordinary or mundane things with no
special symbolic significance
 The Sacred
• The sacred and profane are defined by society
• What makes a thing holy/sacred is the collective
feeling attached to it
• Each society/community designates the sacred
through symbols; collective representations
• Symbols are collective representations of a
society’s/community’s shared beliefs/attachments
• Societies/communities unify around shared sacred
symbols
 Beliefs and Rituals
The sacred can be identified by
• collectively shared beliefs
• collectively shared rituals
o Church: The collective coming together of people
with shared beliefs and rituals
• a moral community; shared solidarity
We see and experience the sacred at collective
assemblies (e.g., funerals, sports events, national civic
events)
• The affirmation and regeneration of social ties
 Science and Religion
• Religion compels us to act in unison together;
compels us to be social
• Religion attaches us to something other than
ourselves; strengthens our individual and collective
life
• Science: creates knowledge
• Religion: creates action, the moral-social remaking of
society; creates solidarities
• Science and religion: separate, interdependent
functions; not incompatible