Durkheim’s Thesis on Social Solidarity in Different Types of Societies

Therefore, organic solidarity is based on difference and change where the norms are frequently changing creating confusion making it look like there are no norms anymore. Today’s example of organic solidarity can be Iraq. Looking at Iraq, you had a strong authoritarian government undone of power. The government in place has little power. What would Durkheim say is the reason? It's in the collective consciousness. Iraq doesn't have a collective consciousness anymore. It has a bunch of different elites all of whom follow their own norms and do what they want. These norms are different. There is nothing to guide the whole nation into solidarity, there’s no unity and no reason to pull the nation’s society together.

Emile Durkheim, was a French sociologist. His theories and writings helped establish the foundations of modern sociology. Durkheim disagreed with most social theorists of the late 1800 's because they thought that individual psychology was the basis of sociology. Durkheim regarded sociology as the study of the society that surrounds and influences the individual. Durkheim explained his theories in his book The Rules of Sociological Method (1895). He says there is relationship between moral values and religious beliefs, which establishes unity in society.Emile Durkheim has long been viewed as one of the founders of the so called variables oriented approach to sociological investigation. Durkheim developed the theory that societies are bound together by two sources of unity. He called these sources mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity refers to similarities that many people in the society share, such as values and religious beliefs. Organic solidarity results from the division of labor into specialized jobs. Durkheim believed that the division of labor makes people depend on one another and thus helps create unity in a society. Durkheim studied thousands of cases of suicide to demonstrate his theory that a person commits suicide because of the

Durkheim argued that society needed a sense of solidarity, that is, its individual members must feel that they are part of a single group or community, reinforcing this statement with how social life and co-operation would be impossible without social solidarity as each individual would pursue their own selfish desires instead of working together to reach an agreement on important things. In his eyes the education system helped to create solidarity by transmitting society’s culture, shared beliefs and values from one generation to the next. For example, he argues that if a country’s history was taught, a sense of shared heritage and a commitment to wider social groups would be gradually established or instilled in the minds of children.

Durkheim’s theory of anomie and Marx’s theory of alienation have had a very strong influence on the sociological understandings of modern life. Critically compare these two concepts.

Anomie, first developed by Emile Durkheim, is very evident in today's society. The concept of anomie, according to Durkheim, is a state of normlessness, where individuals are succumbed to deregulation in their lives and through out their society brought on by a social change. Robert K. Merton, following the ideas of Durkheim, developed his own notion of anomie, called Strain Theory. Merton argued that anomie was a day to day function in society, seen as a social structure that embraces the same goals to all of its members without giving them equal means to achieve them. In the name of progress, modern society has promised a better world, yet in modern society anomie has not become the exception but instead the norm.

Durkheim believed that the division of labor would individualize the people and would create differences amongst the people in a society. Not only does he believe that the division of labor is necessary for civilization to play out like Smith said, but he also said it was a desire for people to be different from each other. Unlike Marx, he believed that this division and differentiation of labor was allowing for a different morale that catered to this system. Even though society is differentiating, it does not mean that the morality of the people is being lost. In fact, he believed that this division of labor was producing what he called an, organic solidarity or morale in which an individual becomes more differentiated from others around him, yet are still integrated in the larger society (Durkheim DL: 37). In contrast to Marx, he believed that division of labor did not create alienation but rather it allowed for people to interact more, as the solidarity changes, people find meaning in their work. Durkheim said that “teach organ, in fact, has its special characteristics, its autonomy, and yet, the greater the unity of the organism, the more marked is the individuation of its parts (Durkheim, DL, 38). The individual becomes more dependent on society. Like Smith, he believed that the division of labor allows for a

2. Durkheim: What term does Durkheim associate with social solidarity? How do societies achieve it organically and mechanically? What did he think threatened social solidarity?

Along with Marx and Weber, Durkheim is considered one of the founding members of modern sociology. He is also credited with making sociology a science through his application of scientific and empirical research. Durkheim believed that sociology should be seen as a science separate from other sciences such as psychology, by studying “social facts” objectively as things. (Kiviston, 2011)

Durkheim focuses on the stability of society, and discusses the social causes of suicide. His work shows how ideology contributes to stability, and he describes abnormal conditions as anomie. Durkheim states, "in normal conditions the collective order is regarded as just by the great majority of persons …[b]ut when society is disturbed by some painful crisis or by beneficent but abrupt transitions, it is momentarily incapable of exercising this influence [of limiting desires]"

Durkheim illustrates social solidarity as social unity and integration, that uses moral phenomenon to help understand the moral degrees in society. Durkheim suggest social solidarity works under two different types which are mechanical and organic solidarity. Durkheim defines mechanical solidarity as common value and beliefs that are shared within society, that creates unity and shared goals. Organic solidarity is the highest interaction between different groups, with diverse ideologies. Durkheim suggest that the Black Lives Matter movement use their social solidarity to achieve collective awareness of the unjust repressive laws that discriminate against African Americans within the judicial and prison system. Durkheim would suggest that the

Our text explains that Durkheim’s sociological model gets to the center of the relationship between an individual and the community.

Tagging along with the subject of social facts, we see that Durkheim splits social facts up into two categories, which are nonmaterial and material. Material facts are known as structural components of society rather than nonmaterial, which focuses on moral and cultural components. Poverty plays a larger role in non-material social facts than material. Tying in religion that was mentioned in the above paragraph and morality, poverty is still being

Essay Question: Why is the concept of social facts so significant for Durkheim’s work? Illustrate your answer with reference to at least one of his studies.

Durkheim was an early sociologist whom is widely known for his theories on the structure of society, including its functioning in traditional and modern societies and the contrast between individualism yet social order. Unlike the other sociologists of his era, his theories analysed external features or "social facts", such as social structure, rather than internal/ psychological features such as a person 's desires and motives. These social facts are made up of the values, morals and structures within a society. "According to Durkheim collective consciousnesses, values and rules are critical to a functional society" (Hurst, 2015). Durkheim 's book "Suicide" (2002) presented the concept of anomie. "The term anomie refers to a condition or state in which

Durkheim is a highly influential name to remember when thinking of sociology. Durkheim’s mission was to develop sociology so it could be defined and to develop a method on how sociology should be used. Durkheim’s main concern in his career was primarily associated with how societies might preserve their integrity and rationality within modernised society, when things such as shared religious views and ethnic backgrounds are seen as things of the past. In relation to Durkheim’s social realism his concern was with the growing individualism in society. Durkheim argues that we are in an era which is imperfectly moving towards a morality based on individualism as “Durkheim regarded individualism as a collective representation, a force that