Emile Durkheim's 1858-1917 Lectures (Part 1) PDF

Emile Durkheim 1858-1917 A Founding Father of Sociology (Part 1) CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY – SOCI2000 LECTURER: RASHALEE M. MITCHELL OCTOBER 1, 2024 Emile Durkheim This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY Video – Emile Durkheim Society: Moral Order Durkheim was intereste...

Emile Durkheim 1858-1917 A Founding Father of Sociology (Part 1) CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY – SOCI2000 LECTURER: RASHALEE M. MITCHELL OCTOBER 1, 2024 Emile Durkheim This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY Video – Emile Durkheim 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 Viewed 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 Durkheim’s significant sociological contributions  Durkheim seen as founding father  He presented a critical juncture between ancient social philosophers & modern social researchers.  Main contributions:  1. His Sociological theory  2. His scientific approach which aided in the status of the discipline today Durkheim’s significant sociological contributions Cont’d  Regarded as an exemplar  Brought the discipline to the fore through his macro sociological theorizing  Noted for his ‘socio-centrism’—places society at the center of the analysis (not the individual) Durkheim’s significant sociological contributions Cont’d  For Durkheim Man and Woman was ‘homoduplex’ consisted of 2 sides:  A/ Natural Wo/man --- impelled by primordial drives, needs and desires  B/ Social Wo/man --- contains the rules, prescriptions and prohibitions that guide behaviour. This came about via the process of socialisation.  Durkheim’s emphasis is on the social, it is the beginning.  The smallest unit is the collective Durkheim’s significant sociological contributions Cont’d  Wo/man became social when the collective conscience interpenetrated the individual’s consciousness  Collective conscience (C.C.)--- totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of society.  C.C. contains prescriptions and prohibitions designed to guide the typical member of society.  C.C.-- One of the fundamental bases for social order Durkheim’s significant sociological contributions Cont’d  What is the Mechanical V.S. Organic Solidarity?  Important to fully comprehend the relation between the individual and society and answering the discipline’s fundamental question.   Solidarity is a mechanism by which Durkheim’s society coheres (fits together, no contradictions). significant  Mechanical solidarity is used in the small, sociological  simple traditional society. Organic solidarity is how large, modern contribution complexed class societies hold themselves together (division of labour s Cont’d and specialisation).  Pre-industrial or rural society/community Sameness in social structure and relationships Traditional Occupational breadth, not specialization Society Shared backgrounds, family, occupational, and cultural histories Overlapping social ties and relationships Traditional Society Deeply felt shared Regulated Strong collective attachments and expectations and conscience beliefs behavior Mechanical Social control solidarity; a social Low level of exerted through cohesion produced individualism repressive sanctions by shared (e.g. gossip) 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/100000001674657 /the-subway-shuffle.html  Increased industrialization/urbanization/population density Geographical and social mobility Characteristic Cultural diversity s of Modern Specialized division of labor Requires individualism Society 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 Division of Labour Social Interdependence Social interdependence: contractual, but also moral Contracts alone do not regulate and produce interdependence Contacts are expressions of social Do not have power independent of morality; of how society defines society expectations and obligations Have legitimacy because they reflect and affirm societal expectations and customs Contracts Originate in society function to protect social relations, society Summary: Traditional and Modern Societies Traditional society Modern society Pre-industrial/rural Industrialized, urban Sameness Diversity Strong collective conscience Weak collective conscience Limited division of Specialized division of labor labor Contract-type, restitutive law Repressive, punitive law Mechanical solidarity Organic solidarity Emile Durkheim’s Scientific contribution PART 2   As previously noted Durkheim carried out Durkheim the first piece of empirical work in the discipline of Sociology. Scientific  “Suicide” Durkheim’s- Magnum Opus was contribution published in 1897.   He previously published the Durkheim guidelines/methodology-a manifesto of sorts for his empirical piece (Suicide) in Scientific the “The Rules of Sociological Method” 1895. contribution  “The Rules of Sociological Method” 1895 — Cont’d  “announced the arrival of an empirical sociology grounded in…the fundamental axiom that there exists an objective and morally authoritative social reality that can and should be studied on its own terms” (Milbrandt & Pearce & 2011, pg. 254). Durkheim Scientific contribution Cont’d Suicide was important to Sociology not only because it was the premier piece of Traditionally Suicide was considered a work in the discipline but also because Psychological phenomenon, (it is pre- eminently a personal act), however, for Durkheim took on the entire set of Durkheim, suicide was a social fact, and Orthodox thinking by challenging one of could only be studied by other social the most common assumptions that facts. abounded. Durkheim Scientific contribution Cont’d They are general guides and SOCIAL FACTS are the subject controls of conduct that are matter of sociology. They are external to the individual in the social structures and cultural form of group norms, mores norms and values that are and folkways. They impose external to, and coercive over themselves on the individual individuals. controlling his/her behaviour in pre-determined ways. Durkheim Scientific contribution Cont’d  “Social facts are things such as institutions, norms and values which exist external to the individual and constrain the individual. The University of Colorado lists as examples of social facts: institutions, statuses, roles, laws, beliefs, population distribution, urbanization, etc.”  Social fact is used as a form of control  Social fact is what makes us react strongly to people who deviate from social attitudes Further readings on Social Facts  https://revisesociology.com/2016/12/12/what-are-social-facts/#tar getText=Social%20facts%20are%20things%20such,population%2 0distribution%2C%20urbanization%2C%20etc.  https://www.thoughtco.com/social-fact-3026590 Suicide: A social fact Social Varies inversely with the degree of social Conditions integration and Durkheim’s sociological study of suicide highlights Suicide o The significance of social interdependence o How social structures attach individuals to society o How different social conditions produce different social consequences Durkheim Scientific contribution Cont’d Durkheim used groups of different religious orientation to ask questions such as: Why is it that Protestants are more prone to suicide than Catholics? Why are there stable rates of suicide, year after year within the same group and societies? Durkheim noted that much of who and what we are how we behave and what we believe are due to social forces.   In the study of Suicide Durkheim highlights two social facts (Independent variables) : Durkheim-  1. Integration-- refers to the strength of the attachment people feel to society Suicide  2. Regulation----or the degree of external constraint on people  Suicide varies with the degree of social integration and cohesion in society. Therefore, too much or too little of either causes suicide!  Suicides rates arise from the social conditions in society and is a social fact, which warrants research by sociologists. Question?  Any examples on integration and regulation? For instance in laws custom etc?   Durkheim notes four (4) types/categories Durkheim- of Suicide. These are as follows: Suicide   1. Egoistic– Low levels of Integration 2. Altruistic---High levels of Integration  3. Anomie – Low levels of regulations  4. Fatalistic– High levels of regulations   1. Egoistic—--Low levels of Integration Modern, within groups, no sense of belonging (No participation and interactions within Egoistical groups). Conditions 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  Selfish!  Therefore, the function/importance of Modern, social relationships and social groups Egoistical o Function as constraints against individualist (egoistic) appetites Conditions o Protect the individual from detaching from society Cont’d o o Any examples?? Social clubs and societies eg. Rotary, Rotaract, Interact, Kiwanis, Key club other voluntary organisations.   2. Altruistic----High levels of Suicide in Integration -too tightly integrated into a group that may require an individual to Tightly give up his/her life for a cause, eg. suicide bombers---too committed to the cause. Bound Produced under societal conditions in which individuals are excessively tied to Societies 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).   Seppuku, (Japanese: “self- Examples of disembowelment”)also called hara-kiri, also spelled harakiri, the honourable Altruistic method of taking one’s own life practiced by men of the Samuri (military) class in suicides: In feudal Japan. Japan –  Favoured under Bushidō (warrior code) as an effective way to demonstrate the courage, self-control, and strong resolve Honour of the samurai and to prove sincerity of purpose. suicides Examples of Altruistic suicides: In Japan – Honour suicides  Two forms of seppuku: 1. voluntary- use by 12th century warriors who were defeated in battle  2. Obligatory - refers to the method of capital punishment for samurai to spare them the disgrace of being beheaded by a common executioner. That practice was prevalent from the 15th century until 1873, when it was abolished.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/seppuku  Some social structures/forms of social Constrainin organization more likely than others to exert a constraining-integrating force on the g individual: Individualist Marriage, Parenthood, Family, Peers In general these institutions provide an Tendencies outlet where one ‘can take a load off’ discuss issues that may be troubling Church o Not religious doctrine per sey, but variation in church structure:  The Catholic Church has a more layered communal/hierarchical Constrainin structure than the Protestant Church g Absorbs rather than isolates the individual Individualist Catholics more tightly integrated than Protestants (Is this still the case? Tendencies Let us discuss further). Cont’d o Lower incidence of suicide among Catholics than Protestants.   3. Anomie—-Low levels of regulation and a lack of Anomic group cohesion, happens when the group fails to give individuals enough regulation and guidance, eg. higher rates of suicide among Protestants (higher Social individualism) than Catholics. Produced by societal conditions of upheaval, Conditions 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 can Independent of also produce social anomie, new bonds of social cohesion: abnormalities or People want to Societal anomie, be with other social societal disturbance, is people “problems” not solely linked to They unite (excessive suicide around a shared inequality, grief/common cause excessive individualism) can threaten social cohesion. Durkheim- Suicide  4. Fatalistic---High levels of Regulation -too much social control.  Perhaps what holds in a Total institution?  Let us discuss this further! Any other examples?   Social cohesion/integration was common to all the types suicide. Thus, for Egoistic and Durkheim- Anomic suicide the more cohesion there is among the group the lower the Suicide  suicide rate. The degree of social cohesion greatly Cont’d determines the likelihood of committing suicide.  Durkheim’s scientific approach in many ways marked an important step from philosophy to a positive science. His immeasurable contribution helped to shape the direction that sociology took and where it is today. Discussion question  When one compares natural sciences contribution to suicide with that of Sociology’s contribution could we have understood why people committed suicide?