Durkheim and Functionalism

Durkheim and Functionalism

Durkheim looked at how the big things affected the little people in

society; the ‘top-down’ approach’.

- using systematic research

- the idea of social structure

- the idea of imperial research

He came up with the idea of SOCIAL FACTS

- these refer to social structures and cultural norms

These ‘social facts’ are independent institutions that affect the way

that people behave

Durkheim argued that sociology should study these social facts,

arguing that the belief systems, customs and institutions of society

and the facts of the social world should all be considered as things

in the same way as the objects and events of the natural world.

Durkheim sees society as not just a collection of individuals, each

acting independently. Instead members of society are directed by

collective beliefs, values and laws, by social facts which have an

existence of their own.

Durkheim splits these social facts into MATERIAL and NON-MATERIAL

social facts:

Material social facts:

structural components of society – institutions

involved with morphological components of society

Non-Material social facts:

moral and cultural components (e.g. morality, collective conscience)

There were 3 main areas that Durkheim looked at:

1 – The transition from primary to modern society

Primitive society he referred to as ‘mechanistic’ society

Modern society he referred to as ‘organic’ society

2 – Suicide

Durkheim concluded that the structure of society at any time affects

the degree of social solidarity, this measured by the number of

suicides.

3 – The idea of religion

As society modernise, there was more than one way to show collective

sentiment, and therefore religion became less important

There were 3 main things that Durkheim emphasised:

* Social Solidarity

‘We belong to a common society, based upon things such as common

culture, socialisation, basic values and norms.

* Crime

Crime is a very important and real thing as because of crime it