Émile DurkheimÉmile Durkheim

April 15, 1858 - November 15, 1917

Biographical BackgroundBiographical Background• Born April 15, 1858 in Epinal, Alsace, France.• Father, Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather

were all rabbis.• Although coming from a Jewish tradition he

was secular in his religious views.• Entered the École Normale Supérieure in

Paris in 1879.• Read and studied with classicists with a

social scientific outlook while in school.• The French academic system had no social

science curriculum at the time, and he took his degree in philosophy in the class in 1882.

Biographical BackgroundBiographical Background• 1887 – started his teaching career in Bordeaux to

teach pedagogy and social science to new teachers. • In 1885-86 he spent a year studying psychology with

Wilhelm Wundt in Berlin.• 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'Année Sociologique, the first journal of sociology in France.

Biographical BackgroundBiographical Background• 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. 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, briefly recovered and resumed work but later that year, on November 15, he died at age 59 from exhaustion.

Contributions and TheoriesContributions and Theories• He sought to construct one of the first

scientific approaches to social phenomena.• Saw 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 social functionalism:– Functionalism views society as a system of

interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the stability and survival of the system as a whole.

• 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 TheoriesContributions and Theories

Along with sociology he was trained in pedagogy, and concluded that the institution of public education was a necessary replacement for religion in a secular society.

Durkheim on Education:Believed that education served many functions:To reinforce social solidarity

Pledging allegiance: makes individuals feel part of a group and therefore less likely to break rules.

To maintain social rolesSchool is a society in miniature: it has a similar hierarchy, rules, expectations to the “outside world,” and trains people to fulfill roles.

To maintain division of laborSchool sorts students into skill groups, encouraging students to take up employment in fields best suited to their abilities.

Contributions and TheoriesContributions and Theories• Durkheim on Anomie:

• Anomie is the breakdown of social norms regulating behavior. • Durkheim and other sociological theorists coined the term 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:• Crime serves 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.• His views on crime were unconventional at the time.

The Division of LaborThe Division of Labor• In The Division of Labor in Society Durkheim examined how social order

was maintained in different types of societies.• Traditional societies were held together by the fact that everyone was

mostly similar to one another. The collective consciousness is highly isomorphic with individual consciousness.

• In modern societies, the highly complex division of labor resulted in people with different occupational specializations. This created dependencies that tied people to one another since no one person could fill all of his/her needs by themselves.

• Increasing division of labor leadsto rapid change in a society. This can produce a state of confusion regarding norms and a growing impersonality in social life. This, in turn, may lead to a breakdown in the norms regulating behavior and a sense of anomie.

Social Facts

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 as distinct from biological and psychological phenomenon.

Social facts can be defined as patterns of behavior that are capable of exercising some coercive power upon individuals.

They are guides and controls of conduct and are external to the individual in the form of norms, mores, and folkways.

Social Facts

“A social fact is identifiable through the power of external coercion which it exerts or is capable of exerting upon individuals”

- Rules of Sociological Method (1895)

Through socialization and education these rules become internalized in the consciousness of the individual. These constraints and guides become moral obligations to obey social rules.

Human Dualism

“There are in each of us…two consciences: one which is common to our group in its entirety…the other, on the contrary, represents that in us which is personal and distinct, that which makes us an individual” - Division of Labor in Society (1893)

“Because society surpasses us, it obliges us to surpass ourselves, and to surpass itself, a being must, to some degree, depart from its nature—a departure that does not take place without causing more or less painful tensions.”

- Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1914).

Human Dualism

“It is not without reason, therefore, that man feels himself to be double: he actually is double….In brief, this duality corresponds to the double existence that we lead concurrently; the one purely individual and rooted in our organisms, the other social and nothing but an extension of society.” - Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1914)

Our purely individual side seeks satisfaction of all wants and desires. It knows no boundaries. Without being constrained by the collective conscience, this side of human beings may lead to the condition that Durkheim labels as “anomie.”

I N D I V I D U A L I N S A T I A B L E A P P E T I T E S

THE

IN- GROUP

OUT SIDE THE

LAW

COLLECTIVE

CONSCIENCE

THE ARENA OF

MORAL CONFORMITY

Suicide (1897)Suicide (1897)• Suicide defined as the act of severing social relationships.• Durkheim’s goal was to show that an individual act is actually the result of

social factors, thus the relevance of the sociological perspective.• A key was the degree of social integration: the integration of a group of

people into the mainstream of society.• Observed that abnormally high or low levels or social integration may

result in increased suicide rates. • He explored the differing suicide rates among differing social groups.• 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.

Key Concepts in SuicideSuicide was a Social Fact Suicide was to be explained by another Social Fact

Anomic Division of Labor (leftover from “Division of Labor”) Integration Regulation

Defined Four Types of Suicide:AltruisticEgoisticAnomicFatalistic

Anomie

Example of US suicide rate:fairly stable over time.

Suicide rate is a social fact– social cause/social effect

Rates are stable across time

Durkheim found low rates of suicide:

When religious integration is high (Catholics < Protestants)When domestic integration is high (Married < Unmarried)When political integration is high (Rural < Urban)

Suicide as a Social Fact

Durkheim’s Argument in Suicide

Unlike animals, human desire is “unlimited,” – there is no internal check on needs and desires.

The “passions… must be limited,” but this must be done by some force exterior to the individual.

This exterior force must be the community (collective conscience) because it is the “only moral power superior to the individual, the authority of which he accepts.”

Regulation through collective conscience is required to ensure that people will accept their position in life, because true social equality is impossible.

Anomie occurs when societies break down or “pass through some abnormal crisis,” people are “not adjusted to the conditions forced on them,” and social bonds/collective conscience fail to do work of regulating.

The Division of Labor in Societyand Anomie

How can we be more bonded to one another when we are further splintered by division of labor and specialization?

Rules emerge from the DOL because it sets up definite ways of acting that are repeated on a daily basis, turning into regular, stable habit. “Then the habits, as they grow in strength, are transformed into rules of conduct.”

This produces a real form of solidarity, interdependence built on shared, regular expectations (duties, rights, obligations) that are built up and extended across time.

“If the division of labor does not produce solidarity, it is because the relationships between the organs are not regulated; it is because they are in a state of anomie.”

ANOMIE-a lack of regulation occurring with breakdown

of (mostly economic) order in modern life-

Anomie is a constant feature of modern life

“Since this disorder is greatest in the economic world, it has most of its victims there.”

Industrial and commercial functions have the greatest number of suicides – and – “the possessors of most comfort suffer most.”

Durkheim’s general argument: When economic order is functional, it “reins in individual

passions” by setting limits on desires and socializing people to be comfortable in their position

SuicideSuicide• Suicide may be caused by weak social bonds.• Social bonds are made up of social integration and

social regulation.• Durkheim’s 4 types of suicide:

Egoistic Suicide: Individual is weakly integrated into a society so ending their life will have little impact on the rest of society.

Altruistic suicide: Individual is extremely attached to the society and because of this has no real sense of autonomy. But alternatively, a freely chosen act of self-sacrifice.

Anomic suicide: a weak social regulation between society’s norms and the individual, most often brought on by dramatic economic or social changes.

Fatalistic suicide: Social regulation is completely imposed upon the individual. With no hope of countering the oppressive discipline of the societythe only way to escape is to take one’s own life.

SUICIDE TYPES, ala Durkheim & Allen (& Berger):

GROUP ATTACHMENT

(SOCIAL INTEGRATION) Shared Social Sentiments

(“society in man”)

BEHAVIOR REGULATION

(MORAL REGULATION) External Constraints

(“man in society”)

HIGH or STRONG

ALTRUISTIC (collectivistic)

FATALISTIC (hopelessness)

LOW or WEAK

EGOISTIC (individualistic)

ANOMIC (meaninglessness)

Altruistic Suicide – Excessive Integration

Jonestown Massacre, 1978

Kamakazi pilots, 1945Suicide bombers, 2013

Egoistic Suicide – Low Integration

Anomic Suicide – Low Regulation

Anomic Suicide – Low Regulation

Fatalistic Suicide – Excessive Regulation

Unnamed slave woman, who on Dec. 19, 1815, jumped out of the garret window of a three-story brick house and survived.

1838 issue of American Anti-Slavery Almanac, which illustrated a passage from Charles Ball’s “Slavery in the United States” (New York, 1837) that describes Ball’s encounter with the slave Paul. Paul had “suffered so much in slavery, that he chose to encounter the hardships and perils of a runaway.”

COMPARATIVE RATES OF ANOMIC SUICIDE

HIGHER LOWERcompared across cells

   

Men WomenProtestants CatholicsCatholics Jews

Urban RuralSingle Married

Married w/o Children

Married c Children

Officers Enlisted PersonnelMilitary in Peace Military in War

   

Adolescents AdultsNative-Americans Euro-Americans

Middle Aged Elderly

Durkheim

Modern Day

Anomic or Fatalistic Suicide?

We are broke. Last April I was worth $100,000. Today I am $24,000 in

the red.

Elementary Forms of Religious LifeElementary 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.

The Elementary Forms of Religious LifeKey Concepts

Definition of Religion Totemism Sacred V. Profane Collective Effervescence V. Collective Conscience Collective Representations Use of the evolutionary metaphor –

and functionalist view of religion

• RELIGION: “A unified system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred things … which unite into one single moral community called a church all those who adhere to them.”

• Durkheim studies religion as the fundamental institution of social life, upon which the collective identity is structured.

• Religion unites members through the creation of a collective conscience. All religious expression is founded on the identification of members to a group.

• Shared religious beliefs and values also reinforce the strength of the collective conscience.

Religion: The Origins of Collective Conscience

– Early development can be observed, and Early development can be observed, and change traced over time. (Evolutionary change traced over time. (Evolutionary model)model)

– Durkheim looked for “the elements which Durkheim looked for “the elements which constitute that which is permanent and constitute that which is permanent and human in religion; they form all the objective human in religion; they form all the objective contents of the idea which is expressed when contents of the idea which is expressed when one speaks of religion in general” (182).one speaks of religion in general” (182).

Why did Durkheim study “primitive” Why did Durkheim study “primitive” society society to understand religion?o understand religion?

Why did Durkheim study “primitive” Why did Durkheim study “primitive” society society to understand religion?o understand religion?

• Simplicity allows for analysis of “essential” Simplicity allows for analysis of “essential” features.features.

• ““Everything is common to all. Movements are Everything is common to all. Movements are stereotyped; Everybody performs the same ones in stereotyped; Everybody performs the same ones in the same circumstances, and this conformity of the same circumstances, and this conformity of conduct only translates to the conformity of conduct only translates to the conformity of thought” (from thought” (from Elementary FormsElementary Forms).).

• These societies are different enough from our own These societies are different enough from our own experience that we are able to see important experience that we are able to see important features.features.

Totemism

Sacred V. ProfaneSacred V. Profane

• Religion is defined by the cultural Religion is defined by the cultural distinction between the sacred and distinction between the sacred and profane.profane.

• Sacred – objects extraordinary and Sacred – objects extraordinary and set apartset apart

• Profane – everyday, ordinary objectsProfane – everyday, ordinary objects• Notions of the sacred are given Notions of the sacred are given

external representation through external representation through objects or symbols, called objects or symbols, called collective collective representations.representations.

Durkheim’s Model of religious evolutionTemporary gatherings

occur

Interactionescalates

Crowd stimulation,heightened

emotions, andcollective

contagion occur

Sense ofcommon

sentimentsthat areexternal

andconstraining

Powers areattributedto “mana”

“Mana” issymbolized

by the totem and by sacredobjects of the

totem

Totemspromote asense of

unity andsolidarity

amongmembers

Psychological need to represent “mana” with a material object

Structural need for clan solidarity

Cultural need for resulting permanent groups

Collective Collective EffervescenceEffervescence

Effervescence is when we feel we are a part of something bigger than ourselves: “Vital energies are over-excited, passions more active, sensations stronger… A man does not recognize himself; he feels himself transformed, and consequently he transforms the environment that surrounds him.”

Is this --The Collective Conscience?

Collective Collective EffervescenceEffervescence

Effervescence occurs when we collectively share an ecstatic experience. In Greek ek-stasis literally means stepping outside reality as commonly defined. We might say we are “besides ourselves”

Is this --The Collective Conscience?

Religion and Collective ConscienceReligion and Collective Conscience• These social categories shape how we think and orient

ourselves to world: time, space, quality . . .

• Establish our basic categories of thought!– “If men did not agree upon these essential ideas at every

moment… all contact between their minds would be impossible, and with that, all life together. Thus societies could not abandon the categories to the free choice of the individual without abandoning itself.”

• Collective conscience guides human action!– “We have the feeling that we cannot abandon them if our

whole thought is not to cease being fully human.”

Function of Religion?

Religion is a way of expressing and reaffirming shared social Religion is a way of expressing and reaffirming shared social beliefs, a functional element of society. beliefs, a functional element of society.

““There can be no society which does not feel the need of There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and collective ideals… This moral remaking cannot be sentiments and collective ideals… This moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies, and achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies, and meetings where individuals reaffirm their common sentiments.”meetings where individuals reaffirm their common sentiments.”

Elementary Forms of Religious LifeElementary 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 beliefs…relative to sacred things…

beliefs 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

Durkheim’s LegacyDurkheim’s Legacy• Durkheim helped make the study of sociology

mainstream. Sociology today has gained tremendous popularity in Europe, the US, and across the world.

• Many of Durkheim’s students pursued his ideas in their own studies.

• Founded the academic journal, L'Annee Sociologique.

• In recent decades, Durkheim’s philosophies have been more influential in the US and Britain than in France, his native country.

• Durkheim’s ideas influenced several major theoretical movements in the twentieth century. – His work was strongly present in the emergence of

‘structuralism’ through the work of Jean Piaget and Claude Levi-Strauss.

Small Group Discussion: Other Institutions as “Religions”

– Pick another social institution (ex. Education) and apply Durkheim’s theory of the elementary forms of religion to it.

– What are some examples of the sacred and the profane in your institution? (Beliefs, values, cultural objects, etc.)

– Describe the group that it defines – Whose collective conscience does the institution reinforce?

– What are some important collective representations of the “religion?”

– Describe the positive and negative rituals associated with the institution– how do members reaffirm their membership?

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

• From Durkheims Suicide, one of the four types of suicide was altruistic suicide. Under this type people saw the social world as meaningless and would choose to sacrifice themselves for the greater ideal. What are some examples you can think of that have happened in the world where people may have committed suicide for this purpose? Did they believe that they were doing the right thing? Did others consider it the right thing?

• Durkheim considered himself to be a functionalist. Functionalism is the view that society is a system of interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the stability and survival of the system. Do you agree with this theory or do you disagree? Why or why not?

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

• Durkheim said that one of the ways to maintain the division of labor, schools should sort students into skill groups, encouraging students to take up employment in fields best suited to their abilities. For today’s society do you think that this may be a good idea? Should this be the schools responsibility or the students? What age is best for this to happen?

• Durkheim believed that crime was merely a departure from conventional notions and that it served as a function of society. Do you agree with Durkheim that crime is a necessary part of society?– Is an ideal society one in which there is no crime (meaning no reformation or progress in

ideas) or one in which crime does occur?

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions• Durkheim believed that the division of labor was an essential part of society and that it evolved

‘spontaneously’ from human nature. Where else do you see examples of the division of labor, other than in the workplace? Why do you think that the division of labor was crucial to success?

• Presentation by: Jennifer Summe, Stephanie Scholl, and Jess Webb