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Emile Durkheim’s Theory strengths and weaknesses
Emile Durkheim’s Theory strengths and weaknesses
Emile Durkheim’s Theory strengths and weaknesses
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Durkheim was a social theorist whose main concern was the basis of integration and solidarity in human societies. Initially, his focus was society as a whole, later he brought his attention to examining rituals and interactions of people in face-to-face contact. Durkheim’s main concern was to analyze how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era, when things such as shared religious and ethnic background could no longer be assumed. In response to this concern, he wrote greatly about the effects of laws, religion, education and similar forces on society and social integration. He didn’t understand how individuals could feel tied to each other in an increasingly individualistic society. Durkheim wanted to explain what held societies and social groups together and how it was done.
Durkheim used a number of concepts in order to explain what held societies and social groups together. The first concept he used was social facts. This concept is defined as “the conditions and circumstances external to the individual that, nevertheless, determine one’s course of action.” Durkheim argued that social facts can be determined by collective data such as suicide. “Social solidarity, or the cohesion of social groups,” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) was another concept and issue Durkheim used and focused on in his studies. He felt that without some form of solidarity and moral cohesion, society could not exist. Durkheim broke solidarity down into two forms, organic and mechanical. Organic solidarity is defined as “solidarity that is typified by feelings of likeness.” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) Mechanical solidarity is defined as “solidarity that is a function of interdependence.” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) Mechan...
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...iew because it shows how much power the government or any other hierarchy has on society. It shows me how society is a controlled environment.
Works Cited
Appelrouth, Scott, and Laura Desfor. Edles. Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text and Readings. Thousand Oaks, CA [etc.: SAGE/Pine Forge, 2012. Print.
Belony, S. A. (2011). A Reflection on Equity and Social Justice in Contemporary Educational Practice. Retrieved from http://sambelony.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/a-reflection-on-equity-and-social-justice-in-contemporary-educational-practice1.pdf
Durkheim, E., & Simpson, G. (1997). Suicide: A study in sociology. New York: Free Press.
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Durkheim, Émile . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013
Kelly, D. H., & Clarke, E. J. (2002). Deviant behavior: A text-reader in the sociology of deviance. New York: Worth Publishers.
During the duration of Émile Durkheim’s life from 1858–1917, he established himself as one the founders of social psychology, otherwise known as conformity. Throughout history, society has steadily presented new ways of thinking and behaving while expecting the populace to behave accordingly. That mentality is as strong as ever in today’s culture, by advertising rational and irrational concepts of majority demeanor and point of view. Individuals feel as though they need to act in uniform with the better part of their peers. Primarily since the mid 1930’s, studies performed by psychologists on individual and group conduct have become more popular and gone into greater depth. Conformity has both lethal and beneficial potential based upon the
In chapter one, Erikson gives a nod of recognition to Emile Durkheim’s work. Erikson notes Durkheim’s assertion that crime is really a natural kind of social activity. I started to think that Erikson may be trying to assert that if crime is a natural part of society, there is an indication that it is necessary in society. Erikson claims that non-deviants congregate and agree in a remarkable way to express outrage over deviants and deviancy, therefore solidifying a bond between members of society. Erikson continues to argue that this sense of mutuality increases individual’s awareness to the common goals of the society.
Emile Durkheim As An Idealist In "Elementary Forms Of The Religion Life" Durkheim's most important rationale in The Elementary Forms was to explain and clarify the generally primordial religious conviction identified by man. However, his focus as a consequence irk a number of outside connection for historians as his fundamental rationale went distinctly ahead of the modernization of an old culture for its own accord; quite the opposite, Durkheim's interest in The Division of Labor and Suicide, was eventually both contemporary as well as workable as he asserts that if prehistoric religion were taken as the topics of investigations, then it is for the reason that it apparently appears “to us better adapted than any other to lead to an understanding of the religious nature of man, that is to say, to show us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity”. Durkheim's doctrine studies that the society must abstain from reductionism and think about social phenomena- sui generis, disqualifying biologist or psychologist explanations; he focused concentration on the social-structural elements of mankind's social problems. Even though in his previous work Durkheim defined social facts by their constraint, massing his main part on the execution of the legal system, he was afterward moved to shift his views considerably. He then emphasized that those social facts and moral codes become potent guides and controls of behavior only to the extent that they become internalized in the cognizance of individuals, while persisting to subsist exclusively of individuals. This, compulsion is not a customary restraint of distant controls on individual will, but rather a moral commitment to conform to a rule. Durkheim attempted to study social facts not onl...
Durkheim was concerned with studying and observing the ways in which society functioned. His work began with the idea of the collective conscious, which are the general emotions and opinions that are shared by a society and which shape likeminded ideas as to how the society will operate (Desfor Edles and Appelrouth 2010:100-01). Durkheim thus suggested that the collective ideas shared by a community are what keeps injustices from continuing or what allows them to remain.
He explained that mechanical solidarity is the primitive society; where there is hardly any division of labor and that almost all people do the same things. Because society is become more modernized we are turning to a world of organic solidarity, which is when there is a division of labor. He explains that solidarity comes with differences and the there needs to be large contributions from many people in order to survive. He also explained his theory of dynamic density, which is the number of people and the frequency in which they interact will lead to changing from the mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity. This means that there would be more specialization in jobs leading to greater efficiency and productivity. This would lead to expanding the population leading to a larger division of labor. Durkheim suggested that this will lead to more peace and prosperity. In the town of Roseto a young priest encouraged the townsfolks to build up the town by planting fruits and vegetables, raising lifestock, and growing grapes to make wine. They also expanded the community by having public service such as schools, parks, convents, and cemeteries. Small shops, bakeries, restaurants, and bars also opened. Durkheims theory explains how society is better when people in the community split up the work. In the town of Roseto they divided the work so the community was more productive. Durkheim also explains how there is a collective conscience, which is the ideas shared within a society. This means that not one individual knows everything but rather as a while society people posses these ideas. In the Roseto community everyone was willing to work together so the community thrives. Durkheim saw many problems with moving towards organic solidarity. He thought that anomie, the feeling of not knowing what is expected. This is because in the collectivistic mechanical
The crux of Emile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life lies in the concept of collective effervescence, or the feelings of mutually shared emotions. Through a hermeneutical approach, Durkheim investigates the reflexiveness of social organization, the balance between form and content, and the immense cooperation in collective representations. In his work, society is the framework of humanity and gives it meaning, whereas religion acts as the tool to explain it. Since society existed prior to the individual, the collective mind must be understood before the concept of the individual can be grasped. However, one component seems missing from his social theory – what underlies society in terms of rituals and rites? Only when this element is fleshed out can the individual be comprehended with respect to the collective conscience. One, out of many, possibilities is the often-overlooked influence of emotions. What is the connection between social functions and emotions? Perhaps emotions reify social solidarity by means of a collective conscience. Durkheim posits the notion that society shares a bilateral relationship with emotional experiences, for the emotions of collective effervescence derive from society but also produce and maintain the social construct.
... the evidence changed in his later works). He has been widely criticised for his use of official statistics, which are open to interpretation and subject to possibly systematic misreporting, and therefore may not represent the true pattern or rates of suicide. It is also argued that he was confused between the distinction between egoism and anomie, and that he failed to substantiate his claims of the existence of altruism and fatalism; this is argued to such an extent that it has even been suggested that there is only one cause of suicide (egoism) that Durkheim could claim to be true. However, whilst acknowledging some of Durkheim’s own contradictions or confusions, some sociologists have gone on to develop and substantiate the ideas that he developed, and there is no denying that his study of suicide is a far-reaching and legacy-building work of substantial value.
Durkheim, (1858-1917), observed the stability of community and the social structure (Hurst, p. 13). He saw conflict declining as society progress. He also implemented the idea of social facts and that society reflects their customs and values such as placed in a totem pole (Lukes, p. 50). With these aspects, ...
Firstly, Durkheim desired to make analyses into the nature of the links associating the individual to society and the social bonds which associates individuals to each other. In addition,...
Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917) was born in Lorraine, France, and was raised in a traditional Orthodox Jewish family. In 1893 he brought a doctoral dissertation entitled Division of Labor in Society (1893), which became a classic in sociology. He wrote the rules of Sociological Approach (1966/1895) and suicide (1897). Durkheim in 1906 became a professor at the Sorbonne and in 1912 issued his final book / last, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, where he developed his theory of religion. Durkheim belongs French sociological tradition, which was concerned with questions of social integration and social unity. The notion that society forms an integrated unity was prominent in Germany and France by the end of the nineteenth century, and was important for Durkheim. Durkheim 's belief is that all forms of religion are essentially the same. To study more closely religion, the religion he wanted to examine the most simple and primitive known, assuming that it must represent the basic model for all religions.
Talcott Parsons have some of the same views of sociology as Durkheim, he believed that social life is categorized by social cooperation. Parsons also believed that commitment to common values maintains or...
Emile Durkheim, regarded as the father of sociology, worked roughly during the same period of time as Tylor and Frazer. However, despite their timely similarities, Durkheim claims that humanity will not outgrow religion. Durkheim differs from Tylor and Frazer because he considers religion and science to have separate purposes for humanity. For this reason, he affirms that science will not be the force through which religion becomes outgrown. To explain, Durkheim suggests that unlike science, “[r]eligion’s true purpose is not intellectual, but social” (Pals: Nine Theories, 102). The social function of religion manifests itself as it “serves as the carrier of social sentiments providing symbols and rituals that enable people to express the deep
Durkheim focus on social explanations rather than individual explanation for things. He looked at economic inequality. Durkheim came up with social facts which was norms, cultures and values. Durkheim believe social facts affect one another and affect people. Durkheim believed that Social facts couldn’t be understood. Durkheim believe in social explanations. Durkheim used two metaphors to describe the different bases of solidarity, or social order, in pre-modern society and modern society. He saw pre modern society as mechanical solidarity and he saw modern society as organic solidarity. Pre modern society would be that everyone is the same and do the same thing and they all have same values. Modern society there are different people each
Durkheim believed that these two types of interactions combined create the four kinds of social structures: anomic, fatalistic, altruistic and egoistic (as cited in Pescosolido, B.A., 2011). These social structures shape the individual that lived in them and that help analyze these structures through a type of network approach, although it was more of simplistic form of network theory it continued to be the back bone of the social network theory ( Pescosolido, B.A.,
Two of the four coordinates that are completely opposite from each other on this theoretical framework include “Individual” and “Collective.” According to classical theory, “Individual are the patterns of social life which are seen as emerging from ongoing interaction, and Collective are the patterns of social life which are seen as the product of existing structural arrangements” (Appelrouth...