SOCIOLOGY NOTES EMILE DURKHEIM

EMILE DURKHEIM (1858 – 1917)

Historical Background:

He was born 15^th April, 1858, in Epinal, France. His father was Moise Durkheim and his mother Melanie. His father was a rabbi in the Jewish religion.

He was brought up in a relatively pleasant circumstance.  He was educated both in secular and religious studies with the intention of training him to become a future Rabbi like his father. After his secondary school education, Emile was no longer interested in rabbinical carrier, he taught in several secondary schools, he dropped his first Hebrew name David, and left for Paris in search of further secular education.

Studied; philosophy, history, Taught Pedagogy (education) at Bordeauz University, in France. He is also the founder of first sociological research institute in the world, organized and edited world’s first journal of sociology.

Durkheim was married to Louise. He had two children: Marie and Andre. The whole family supported him in his endeavors and particularly his son Andre was very close to him.

At the outbreak of World War I, his son and many other students were killed. Durkheim grieved and was depressed because of the loss of his son and friends. He died on 15^th Nov. 1917 at the age of 59.

Social environment: Durkheim lived in a period when France was going through a series of social, economic and political problems.

1. Franco-Prussian War: In 1870 France entered into a war with Prussia which had many allies including German. France was defeated and some of its towns were captured including Durkheim’s hometown of Epinal.  Epinal was predominantly inhabited by Jewish communities. The people were harassed and oppressed by the German troops because of racial discrimination; and on the other hand, the French blamed the people of Epinal for the fall of the city.

2. Industrial conflicts: the industrial revolution which had spread in almost all parts of Europe by then created antagonistic relationships between groups in the society- the employers and employees. At one time there was extreme violence when employees seized the city of Paris and established a separate egalitarian/equality republic known as the Paris Commune which was clashed by the government resulting in the death of more than sixty thousand workers.

3. Political instability: The Great French Revolution of 1789 which resulted into the death of King Louis XVI, was followed by a series of political disputes and revolutions. The death of King Louis XVI paved the way for the rise of Napoleon’s dictatorship who was later defeated and the Bourbon Monarchy was established. The bourbon monarchy was also dethroned in a revolution in 1830.

After the Bourbon monarchy, the Monarchy of Louis Philippe was established. But it ended in another revolution in 1848. The First Republic was established but short-lived, and Napoleon III came to throne. He was dethroned in the Franco-Prussian war. The Third Republic was established immediately after the war.

Durkheim grew up during this time. This was a time of sharp divisions in the society between the capitalists, monarchy and socialists. There was neither political unity nor moral unity.

Durkheim left Epinal for Paris. Things were not very different in Paris. The prevailing environment persuaded Durkheim to commit himself to sociology and the scientific analysis of the society. He called his dedication to sociology as a “moral calling.” Durkheim believed that sociology was the necessary discipline to improve the society as well as to solve the prevailing social problems. Durkheim used medical terminologies to describe the social situation of his milieu/social environment. The society was in the state of “moral anarchy’/disorder, “disunity”, “disorganization”, and “decadence:/below standard of behaviour.

Sociology will be used as a tool for diagnosing and analyzing social problems or “Pathologies” and for finding their “cures” or solutions. Sociology will be able to develop a better society because of its Positivistic scientific methods of defining, observing, comparing, and formulating laws.

Influences: The writings that influenced him were of Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), Henri de Saint-Saimon (17601825), Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) and Charles Renouvier (1815-1903).

Works:

1.                  Division of labour in society (1893).

2.                  The Rules of Sociological Methods (1895)

3.                  Suicide (1897).

4.                  Collective and Individual Representation(1899)

5.                  Judgments of reality and Judgments of value(1911).

6.                  Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912).

Main Ideas of Durkheim:

One: Collective Consciousness:

He viewed society as a distinct form of reality. He defined it as sui generis reality. Sui generis is a Latin terminology which refers to a special type of reality that cannot be explained in terms used to describe other realities.

According to Durkheim, the universe contains a number of realities: the physical, the chemical, the biological, the psychological, and the social. With the exception of the physical reality, the remaining realities have the same procedure of formation: they emerge from the interrelationship of simple elements or less complex reality, the outcome of which is a more complex reality. For example, water emerges from the interrelationship of the physical element of hydrogen and oxygen, measured in proper proportions and conditions.

This interrelationship is therefore the cause of water in its liquid form and for its utility of putting out fires. Likewise, social reality or society emerges from the biological reality (which has the unique property of life) and psychological or mental reality (which has properties such as consciousness, thought, reflection, and understanding). When people interact, collective shared beliefs, values, and norms develop/emerge. These shared conceptions are called “Collective representations” by Durkheim.

A collective representation is a symbol which represents a common intellectual and emotional meaning to members of a group. It includes symbols such as a Flag and other concepts which reveal groups life history, experiences, or viewpoints. It expresses collective sentiments, ideas which give a group its unity and unique character/identity. Collective representations contribute greatly to the unity or solidarity of a social group.

Sui generis reality is a reality of collective representations – i.e. shared beliefs, values, shared consciousness, norms, ways of thinking, and ways of feeling that characterizes a particular social group or society.

Each group/ society has its own set of collective representations which are shared by all of its members. These representations forms a united collective set of social rules and ways of understanding the world called “Collective Consciousness’ or “collective conscience”. i.e. ‘the sum total of beliefs and sentiments common to the average of the members of the society.”

The sui generis reality has three important characteristics:

1.      Generality: it is a property that resides in a collective whole. It preexists and outlives particular persons.

2.      Externality: Secondly, society is also an external force that affects individual’s existence; it has to approve or disapprove their actions. Or are sometimes pressured to conform to its dictates or commands when they run contrary to society’s actions. It has an existence independent of the will of a particular person or a group of persons.

3.      Constraint: this reality has coercing powers upon subjects that they have to conform to its dictates. It is a force that constrains individual’s activities. And this is evident through the knowledge of punishment when individuals violate society rules.

Thus according to Durkheim, society represents three unique properties of externality, generality and constraint. Every individual human being is educated and socialized in the shared consciousness of his group, which determines his way of interpreting the world and social activities.

Two: Social Change/dynamism; Mechanical and organic solidarity.

Durkheim’s Sui generis reality is dynamic. That is, society is an organization that is constantly in a natural process of change through sequential number /evolutionary stages.  Durkheim made a comparison between the primitive and civilized societies. He saw them as two different social organizations; he called the former mechanical and the latter organic. These represent two different types of unity or solidarity. Social change is nothing but a movement from mechanical to organic form of social organization. And social change to Durkheim is a process of differentiation of parts and specialization of activities.

a)      Mechanical Solidarity; Collective consciousness.

According to Durkheim, the Primitive society is characterized by Mechanical solidarity, which is based upon the concept of collective consciousness. In Mechanical solidarity people are united by social bonds which are based on shared morality. This solidarity springs from the nature of the people, their likeness. This likeness which binds them together is ‘mechanical’; that is, initiates in them the feeling of a kind of automatic sense of belonging.

In mechanical societies people live in small societies, share collective representations. They are united on the bases of their likeness in world view, similarity of activity, identification with the society and there is no individuality.

Therefore, there is resemblance of the members of this type of society/collectivity. They feel the same way, cherish the same type of values, and have more or less the same kind of mentality. The society is coherent because of the similarities of its members. Hence, collective consciousness. The law which exists in this type of society is punitive – the society quickly punishes severely people who dare to challenge the conventional ways of life of the society.

b)      Organic Solidarity; Division of Labour.

However, through a process which involves increase in population density, interaction and competition in occupation, mechanically organized society is replaced by organically organized society.

The organic solidarity is characteristic of modern advanced society, which is based on the division of Labour. Durkheim wrote a book on this topic, ‘The Division of Labour in Society’ in which he outlined the relations between individuals and society.

According to Durkheim the increasing density of Population is the major key to the development of the division of labour. Organic solidarity emerges with the division of labour. That is, social organization is determined by social bonds which are based on specialization that unite members of the society. In mechanical solidarity members are united by likeness; but in organic solidarity they are united by differences among people whose specialized pursuits make them rely on one another. This interdependence is reflected in human mentality and morality. It is precisely because individuals are different that consensus is achieved. Thus, increasing division of labour leads to increasing collective conscious.

In organic solidarity people pursue different occupations, develop separate identities, and difference in world views. People are bound together not only by similarities but most importantly by functional dependence of individuals and groups resulting from occupational specialization. The laws that exists in this society are recitative i.e. aiming at the right of restoring the damages done.

 The difference in human nature that takes place in the course of social change between mechanical and organic societies can be explained by the types of suicides taking place.

In mechanical societies, individualism is not high; therefore, only “altruistic” suicide will take place. Type of suicide associated with society’s collective conscience. A person commits suicide because of over conformity to social rules and over identification with the society.

But in organic societies, individualism is more developed, “egoistic” and “anomic” forms of suicide are more frequent. These occur because of lack of identification with the social whole. Egoistic suicide occurs when a person desires are frustrated and when the person’s attitude does not conform to the socially developed orientations (the social part is not well developed). Anomic, on the other hand, occurs when social rules fails to create an impression to the person that he/she is a significant part of a larger social group(there are no sufficient rules to integrate the person onto the collective whole).

Durkeim had another conception of Societies based on complexity and sizes of organizations. There are four types:

·         The horde – simple undifferentiated form of society.

·         simple polysegmental society – created by the union of two or more hordes.

·         polysegmental simple compound society – moderate complex societies.

·         polysegmental doubly compound society -  More complex and differentiated  societies. More complex societies are characterized by high level of specialization.

All societies progress in a step-by-step, slow, process of evolutionary change. There exists transitional period between one social type and another which are called “stages” or social forms. Social forms are characterized by a high degree of social disorganization and widespread social problems. This is because of the sociomoral rules of one stage (lower stage) do not apply in a new evolved, differentiated complex stage. Such problems will terminate once the new social stage is fully evolved. Durkheim maintained that the stages are related to some extent/they share some similarities.

     

Three: Individual personality; Dualistic view of human nature.

Durkheim’s conception of the individual is known as Dualistic view of human nature. That is, a person’s personality (self) is composed of two parts: the social part and the individual part. The two parts differ in orientations.

The social part is developed in the course of socialization and maintained throughout life by interactions with other people and by participation in collective activities. It is altruistic and is oriented towards the fulfillment of collective goals and following social rules.

The individual part is inborn (bioorganic). It is self-centered/it is connected to a person/ oneself and it focuses on the individual’s own egoistic desires and interests.

In simple societies the social part dominates the individual part. But the case is just the opposite in the modern society. For harmonious relationship and happiness in the society, the social part has to be developed and sustained.

If the social part is not well developed, the members of the society will pursue their own interests and soon these interests will clash resulting into social conflicts. Similarly, the individual himself (with undeveloped social part) will also suffer in the sense that he will have no self-control; his self-seeking egoism will be insatiable. No matter how much wealth or luxury one has, one will need more. Durkheim called this attitude as the “malady of infiniteness”.

Therefore, the social part is very important in the individual. But it can be well developed only when the society itself is harmonious, stable and organized. If the society is disorganized there would be no full formation of the social part. Durkheim called a state where the society is disorganized; where rules and norms do not exist as “Anomie”.

Four: Anomie

In two of his books, ‘The Division of Labour in Society’ and ‘Suicide’, Durkheim discussed the concept of Anomie. Anomie – a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals/citizens. It is a state of normlessness. In such a situation things are disorganized in the society and norms and rules for the guidance of people are non-existent.

Durkheim used the word Anomie to refer to the fact that in modern society, traditional norms and standards of behavior are undermined and no replacement is done to their places. When there is a lack of clear standards to guide the behavior of the people in the society, people feel disturbed, disoriented and anxious, and this situation can prompt people to commit suicide. People in the modern society look for their own interests (industrialists) and disregard the interests of others(employers).

The state is in anomic stage. There is an anarchy (state of confusion/social structure without government, law or order).There are conflicts and groups come into collision with one another. The strongest aims at destroying the weakest or subordinating them. If at all they suffer this subordination, is not because they consent to it but because of compulsion. So there is no stable equilibrium in the society as such. Even truces reached during violence are only superficial and provisional, they are unsatisfactory solutions. Human Passions stop only before a moral power they respect, otherwise there is chronic war going on(latent/invisible or not active).

The cause of all this is the supremacy of economic development. Formerly this played insignificant role in the society but today it has assumed an important place, the first place, in the society whereas the administrative, military, and religious functions become steadily less important. The economic activity or function attracts the greatest number of people, they live in industrial and commercial world, a world of people who exist outside the moral sphere.

Therefore, sociology, by studying the society in a scientific manner, will initiate programs which will create non anomic state in the society – a society in which an individual will develop his social nature and live happily.

Five: Suicide

Suicide is one of the known research topics of Durkheim. He called it an act of self-destruction. He observed four types of suicide:

1.      Egoistic – occurs when the consciousness of a collectivity isolates the individual. The bond of dependence of the individual on the group is weakened, and the former is left on him/her.

2.      Altruistic – Results from over integration of the individual to the group. To illustrate this he used an example of high rates of suicides among Protestants compared to Catholics and Jews, was the result of overemphasis on self-determination of individuals among the Protestants. The Protestants subjected their members to free inquiry and this implied fewer beliefs were held in common. Also there were High rates of suicide during movements of national political crises than in normal periods.

3.      Anomic suicide – Results from a withdrawal or breakdown of a moral regulation, mainly in two contexts: Economic life – abrupt disruption or change of one’s economic circumstances, be it for better or for worse. This creates disequilibrium of demand and desires, and the moral constraints imposed on them. Domestic relationship such as breaking the marriage bond also results into normlessness and can cause suicide. Anomic and egoistic suicides are found in modern societies where progress is rapid.

4.      Fatalistic suicide – one which takes place because of overregulation – a situation where, for example, people’s future is blocked or expression of passion is violently checked by oppressive discipline. Durkheim gave examples of suicides of young husbands, or childless married women

Six: Social facts:

Durkheim defined social facts as every way of acting that can affect the individual, externally. They are realities external to the individual. Social facts include customs, economics, religion, laws and general rules of behavior that people accept without question. Durkheim treated social facts as things.

Characteristics of social facts:

1.      Generality - Social facts are characterized by ‘generality’; they are spread throughout society and cannot be claimed to be the property of any single individual. This generalarity is brought about by imposition. For example, the degree of social integration or amount of division of labour, or rate of change in the society, cannot be reduced to mere statement about particular persons (reduced to individual level).

2.      Externality - social facts have external existence which does not depend on the will or wish of an individual. Aspects of culture, language, custom, knowledge, are already objectively present in the society; they have to be assimilated by everyone.

3.      Constraints – Social facts possess the capacity to influence, inhibit, or constrain human activity – constrains one’s behaviour. They are endowed with coercive power. People are externally forced to use things like language or currency of their land – they can do nothing but use them.

However, social facts are not directly observable. Therefore, they are indirectly observed through social indicators. The three social indicators used by Durkheim are:

·         statistical comparisons,

·         historical comparisons,  and

·         Ethnographic comparisons.

These are the methods he used in his works; sometimes he employed two or more indicators in studying one activity.

In his work Suicide (1897), Durkheim, investigated that in modern society suicide rates are a good indicator of how a society is integrated. High rates of suicide indicate how a society has low levels of segregation and is composed of people have poorly developed social aspect and weak sense of social unit. To prove this he used various statistical records from government, ethnic groups, religious groups, time periods, social strata, gender and marital status, which contained suicide rate statistics.

In his work, The division of labour (1893) in the society, he used historical records. In mechanically organized societies people have little sense of individuality and portray more unity. While in organically organized society, people are engaged in highly different activities. They have individual differences and uniqueness. Their unity is based on the interdependence of their accomplishment of specialized tasks necessary of society’s functioning and continued survival.

Durkheim maintained that in the course of social development, societies move from mechanical to organic forms of solidarity organization. He used historical data written in legal codes as indicators of this difference in solidarity. The greater the amount of “repressive “ law in a society(law that involves violent sanctions and aims to punish or destroy the rule violator), the greater the indication of mechanical solidarity; and the greater the extent of “recitative” laws (which involve judgment in terms of damages done by the rule violator and a fine that ‘restores’ the loss of the innocent victim), the greater the extent of organic solidarity.

In his work, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life(1912), he used ethnographic (cultural-anthropological) indicators. In this he examined the nature of social, moral and religious rules. He used a pre-literate Austrian tribe as his case study. He observed that complex societies are too complicated to save as a good indicator, a small simple society could serve as a good indicator, revealing social facts that exist in modern society but are obscured from the sociologist’s view.

For Durkheim, the study of social indicators was to help the formulation of sociological laws that will, in turn, assist the sociologist to predict the future trend or direction of social change; and develop scientific programs for the solution of social problems.

Seven: Discipline of Sociology

Another important contribution of Durkheim was  the justification of sociology as a separate independent discipline. Just as there have been established specialized fields to study different levels of reality such as physics, biology, chemistry, etc, there is a need to establish sociology as a specialized discipline to study social reality.

Sociology has the right to exist because:

·         It has a unique subject matter, which requires the development of new methods of investigation and analysis.

·         Its needs cannot be accomplished by other social sciences.

·         To unite social sciences: other sciences such as criminology, geography, education, politics, study only particular aspects of social reality. Sociology will unite and relate them in an organized body of knowledge.

·         To promote change and solve social problems since the traditional disciplines – History and Philosophy – have failed to understand the nature of the social world. Besides, crises and problems of modern society demand an independent field focused on a scientific study of social phenomena.

Eight: Social Institutions:

For Durkheim, sociology is also concerned with the analysis of the “social Organism”(society). The components of the social organism he was interested in were: religion, education, family, economy, and politics. He was particularly interested in the origin, functions and process of change of these institutions.

Religion is the most fundamental social institution, the first and oldest of all, the foundation on which other institutions have emerged. Its function is to integrate individuals into society and produce sentiments of unity, belonging, and common purpose.

He distinguished between the Sacred and the Profane. The Sacred refers to that which is collectively held in awe, its violation entails severe punishment. The Profane, on the other hand, is that which is used in everyday utilitarian manner.

The sacred is an emanation from the society. All religion is socially oriented. God represents the society on whose existence the individual’s life is dependent. Religion is the source of all social institution because it manifests the total society.

As society develops from mechanical to organic, religious beliefs, ideas and sentiments (collective representations) also develop, while other social activities become no sacred (secular) in character.

Education has the function of imparting technical skills and knowledge. It is in the school that the child first learns to participate in collective activities outside the family; to inculcate the spirit of team work and to submit his interests to those of the group. The field of education which formally was in the hands of the religious orders, is being taken by the state.

Family: Specialization is detrimental to the family institution. It alienates people from their families. When people stay away from the family for long time; they lack family socialization and moral influence; and as family members spend less time with one another and meet irregularly, they develop different interests and goals in life. Soon the family bonds and ability to integrate its members are weakened.

The economic institution is concerned with the productive activities which engage the adult individual to contribute to the society. Modern economic society is based on specialized knowledge and training and its activities may take place at localities situated far away from family supervision. This separation of individuals from family supervision is the cause of many social problems.

Establishment of economic activities outside the traditional family system, cause individuals to live without systematic shared sociomoral rules (strong collective conscience because economic institutions have developed without sociomoral rules). Lack of such rules, produces continuous conflicts among classes of people (among industrialists themselves, or between employer and employees).

The political institution  is the central consciousness that coordinates other aspects of the society – it is a “social brain” . But Durkheim observed that the Political state in France was pathological - did not show signs of a healthy state. Instead, it portrayed itself as a set of structured political districts, based on geographical and ideological differences and interests.

In general, Durkheim, saw the various social institutions as being in a state of drastic change and were suffering from social pathology.

Nine: Sociology of Morality:

Durkheim devoted his life to advance the sociology of moral life/moral needs of modern society. In his book, suicide, he talks about social theory of the disorder of modern life. In this he talked about his concept of Anomie, which he had already introduced and discussed in Division of Labour. In Division of labor Durkheim compaired the moral order of traditional and modern societies. In modern society relationship of human beings is chaotic: employer and employees, worker and manager, competitions of tradesmen among themselves or public; people are fighting for the boundary of what is just and what is unjust, what is permitted and what is not permitted, nothing is fixed and changes are made arbitrarily.

Human beings have unlimited needs and their passions are insatiable. The satisfaction of one passion sparks the other, and the process goes on. Therefore, moderation is imperative. The agency proper for this work is the society. Society alone can play this moderating role because it has the moral power superior to any individual, and its authority is accepted by individuals. It alone has the power to stipulate law and to set the point beyond which the passions must not go. It alone can estimate the reward to be offered to human functionary.

Besides, human beings are endowed with different gifts. Individual inherit natural talents, intelligence, and taste, scientific, artistic, literary or industrial ability. A moral discipline is therefore required to make those less favored by nature accept the lesser advantages which they owe to the chance of birth.

Durkheim admitted the differences in moral actions in different societies, but argued that all is oriented towards one goal – collective social welfare. Moral action, in whichever society, is directed towards achieving societal ends and not individual wishes, goals or desires.

 Orientation to collective end is developed through the process of socialization and the creation of the social (moral) part of the individual’s dualistic nature. The health of the state depends on the extent to which its members/subjects have developed the social part. The society whose individuals are well developed in this aspect is the healthiest society; and such a society has less social problems.

What is moral is not universal; the concept of morality and moral action depends on the social type. It depends on the tastes of the society(what is beneficial to that society). That is to say, each society has its measurement of morality and moral action. Morality changes with the change of the nature or type of society.

The method to discover the form of morality of a particular society is through empirical investigation. Sociology, which is equipped with methods of social analysis, is ideally suitable to analyze the forms of morality and moral action appropriate for modern industrial society; and aid in creating a harmonious society.

Inspite of the negative criticism of his society as anomic, with inadequate moral regulations, marked by disharmony and misery, Durkheim was very optimistic of the future of his society. Since the society is in the state of transition, things will change for better when sociology is fully developed and its findings and laws integrated in social life.

His concept of the future society is known as Corporatism – that is, future functions of the society will be performed by “corporation.” That is, associations of both employees and employers ruled by a council which is a representative body of employers and employees. This councils will be in at every level, from particular fields of occupations to the national level – which will be responsible for safeguarding the interests of all and responsible for the formulation of policies.

Contributions of Durkheim:

·         Durkheim’s works are recognized especially in his contribution to the study of the sociology of deviance, education, suicide and religion.

·         He is acknowledged for the establishment of sociology as a unique form of study; a separate discipline.

·         He has contributed substantively in the study of functionalism.

·         His analysis of collectively shared values and beliefs is highly acknowledged (Collective representations).

·         His concept of social facts is adopted in every form of sociological research.

Criticism:

Durkheim was too hostile with the concept of individualism as if it is the only cause of social  problems. But individualism has its contribution to society; individual initiative and creativity increases competition and development of the society. The only difficulty it has to be continuously checked.

Social order and stability alone are inadequate determining factors to create non anomic state. Many other factors such as integrity, political stability, international relations, diplomacy, democracy, etc. are very important.

Altruistic suicide is found even in modern society;  it is not the property of mechanical society alone.