Lecture 3: Durkheim Flashcards
Durkheim
- One of the founding fathers of sociology
- Maintaining order and social cohesion
- Known for the Division of Labour
- Recognized as the first French academic sociologist
Durkehim’s foci
- Focused on morality, religion, and law
- Law was the least important; morality was central
law as a reflection of morality
- Legal phenomena are manifestations of moral or religious phenomena
- Society is a moral phenomenon, sustained by shared beliefs and sentiments
- Law mirrors these moral beliefs and sentiments
Ex. Civil rights legislation reflects the belief that racial discrimination is wrong
Durkheim’s approach to legal sociology
- Did not develop a systematic sociology of law due to his focus on morality and religion
- Provided and expansive, controversial explanation of legal evolution
- Explored law across all societies and historical periods to understand their evolutionary relations
Durkheim’s pivotal works
- The Division of Labour in Society (1893): examines what holds society together
- The Rules of Sociological Methods (1895): defines sociology’s subject matter
the influence of Durkheim’s works
- Introduced foundational sociological concepts
- Concepts later applied to studies on suicide, religion, eduaction, morality, and punishment
social facts
the objective, external norms and values that influence individual behaviour
collective consciousness
- Defined as the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society
- Functions as a group mind regulating morality and guiding behaviour
- Provides shared norms and values that define right and wrong
- Essential for maintaining social order and cohesion
- Evolves with societal structures and levels of solidarity
mechanical solidarity
- Cohesion in small, traditional, and pre industrial communities
- Based on homogeneity: members share similar beliefs, values, and ways of life
- Creates a strong bonding force through mutual resemblances
organic solidarity
- Cohesion in complex, modern societies with a highly differentiated division of labour
- Based on specialization of tasks and interdependence rather than shared beliefs
purpose of social facts
- Established sociology as a distinct academic discipline
- Differentiated sociology from psychology, philosophy, and biology
- Rooted in positivism, using scientific methods to study sociology
definition of social facts
- Ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, external to the individual, and endowed with the power of coercion
- External to individuals but influence their behaviour
- Ex. norms, values, gender roles, morality, institutions, suicide rates, and law
characteristics of social facts
- objective reality
- phenomena sui generis
- persistent and coercive
objective reality
exist independently of individual consciousness, yet influence behaviour
Phenomena sui generis
autonomous and distant from physical, biological, and psychological phenomena
persistent and coercive
resistant to change, enduring across generations, and constraining individual actions
law as a pre-eminent social fact
- Long-standing and likely to persist indefinitely
- Coercive: prohibits behaviours like murder or theft, with real consequences for violations
- External: perceived as “out there,” part of an objective social reality
- Observable: written in codes, constitutions, and legal texts
studying social facts
- Treated as things and studied through positivist methods (observation, measurement)
- Nonmaterial social facts (ex. Collective consciousness) measured indirectly though correlated indicators
strength of collective consciousness
- Stronger and more precise in societies with mechanical solidarity (traditional, homogenous)
- Weaker and less precise in societies with organic solidarity (modern, diverse, specialized)
key features of mechanical solidarity
- collective consciousness
- division of labour
division of labour in mechanical solidarity
Simple and undifferentiated
Roles based on traditional expectations
example of mechanical solidarity
- Amish communities
- Homogeneity: uniform dress reflects shared values
- Division of labour: traditional gender roles in farming and household tasks
- Collective consciousness: religion and custom define their way of life
significance of mechanical solidarity
- Found in primitive, preindustrial, and religious subcultures
- Emphasizes shared morality and strong social cohesion
key characteristics of organic solidarity
- Independence: individuals rely on each other to perform specialized roles
- Weaker collective consciousness
- Greater diversity of beliefs and values
- Social cohesion relies on functional relationships not homogeneity
- Restitutive laws: focus on restoring order or compensating for wrongs
examples of organic solidarity
- Modern industrialized societies with complex economies and diverse institutions
- Cities where individuals perform specialized jobs (ex. Doctors, teachers, engineers) and depend on one another for goods and services
organic vs. mechanical solidarity
- Mechanical: based on similarity and strong collective morality
- Organic: based on difference and functional interdependence
significance of organic solidarity
- Reflects societal evolution from traditional to modern structures
- Highlights the shift from shared morality to cooperative relationships
law as a reflection of social solidarity
- Societies evolve from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity
- Social solidarity is a moral phenomenon and morality underpins law
- Law reflects the moral beliefs and sentiments of a society
law as a methodological indicator
- Social solidarity cannot be directly observed and measured
- Codified law serves as the external and visible symbol of social integration
- Law provides a measurable way to gauge the type and level of solidarity
Durkheim’s sociological thermometer analogy
Just as a physicist measures the health via the rise and fall of mercury, Durkheim uses law as the sociological thermometer of social cohesion
concomitant variation
- A society’s type and amount of law corresponds to its type and amount of solidarity
- Mechanical solidarity: repressive laws dominate, punishing deviance harshly
- Organic solidarity: restitutive laws prevail, focusing on restoring order and addressing disputes
significance of the shift from repressive to restitutive law
Law becomes a tool to empirically observe and analyze the evolving structure and integration of societies
