Durkheimian School

Category: Theoretical approaches

The name and epistemological, theoretical, and pragmatical approach of the Durkheimian School is ultimately linked to the life and work of French sociologist Émil Durkheim (1857-1917). Durkheim is one of the most important sociologists for the institutionalization of sociology in France. In 1898 Durkheim founded the first sociological journal in France, L'Année Sociologique, and several very important collaborators of Durkheim worked with him on the journal: Marcel Mauss, Celestine Bouglé, Simiand Francois, Halbwachs Maurice, and Henri Huber. In a broad sense, the Durkheimian school approach includes Durkheim, his collaborators on L'Année Sociologique, and other social scientists, most of which are from France, who adopted and applied Durkheim's sociological method.

Émil Durkheim

Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

Durkheim's first book Division of Labor in Society (1893), as well as the following books The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) and Suicide (1897), are the basis for understanding his sociological approach. In his book Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim observes the development and evolution from primitive to civilized societies, and pays special attention to the relationship between the type of economy and the division of labor, on the one hand, and the type of solidarity and morality is society, on the other hand. To explain this relationship, he introduces a division into two basic types of solidarity in society - "mechanical solidarity" and "organic solidarity".

In societies of mechanical solidarity, the division of labor is very limited, societies consist of segments that are functionally the same, while kinship relations govern relations within and between segments. This way of life and work influence the creation of "collective consciousness" which is completely within the individual consciousness, so individuals blindly obey the opinion of the majority and live by traditional rules. Individuals, among themselves, have the same patterns of actions, emotions, and attitudes, so they do not form separate personalities. The legal system is aimed at retributive sanction, that is, at punishing those who violate collective rules. The goal of the regulatory system is to establish moral balance. Moral and legal responsibility falls on the entire collective, while social status is mostly hereditary.

In societies of organic solidarity, which appear with the emergence of civilization, a complex division of labor is developing. Different experiences and functions in society lead to the creation of different personalities. The connection between individuals is based on different and complementary functions they perform, so this type of solidarity is called organic, because, as in a living organism, where each organ performs a specific function, effective cooperation is necessary for survival in this type of society. Since each person has a different function, there is a development of morality that promotes individualism in society, but individualism where each person develops his or her own specificity, to better develop themselves and thus give the greatest contribution to the common good. At the same time, with the development of individualism, there is a decline in the collective consciousness. Durkheim rejects the idea that selfishness and selfish individualism can be the basis for building any kind of solidarity and cohesion in society. In a society of organic solidarity, the legal system is focused on contract law and the restitutive sanction.

The basis of social change and increase in the division of labor does not lie in the aspiration of individuals to increase economic productivity and thus achieve a higher level of economic consumption, instead, the division of labor is a consequence of changes in socio-morphological structure. Due to the large natural increase of people, there is an increase in population and an increase in population density, and this represents an increase in the physical density of society. Increasing the physical density of society leads to increased competition in society, hence individuals are forced to specialize economically to survive. The increasing physical density of people further leads to an increase in moral density, because greater specialization in the division of labor requires higher levels of communication and interaction. If the division of labor does not lead to an increase in cooperation and communication in society, a pathological form of "anomic division of labor" occurs.

Views on Epistemology, Methodology, and Theory

Durkheim presents a detailed account of his own epistemological, methodological, and theoretical approach in the book The Rules of Sociological Method. Durkheim's basic methodological postulate is that we should "treat social facts as things." Unlike Comte's positivism, Durkheim believed that sociology could study the inner psychic life of people. In that sense, values, emotions, morals, and all other products of collective and individual consciousness can be seen as things. Social facts exist outside of any individual, and they limit and direct his behavior. Individuals, as members of society, are governed by collective values, rules, and morals. All social facts must be determined by empirical study, and not deduced from the initial premises.

Social facts should be explained through other social facts, and exclusively by the social facts of a higher order, that is, social facts that precede the studied social fact. The basic and key origin of all social facts lies in the internal structure of the social environment. The social environment or "social substratum" consists of morphological elements of society: the number of people in the society, the degree of closeness and communication within society, the spatial distribution of physical elements, etc. „Material density“, which is shaped by social substratum, has a key influence on the formation of moral or „dynamic density“. Scientific objectivity is achieved by paying attention to social facts that can be objectively empirically investigated and whose variations can be easily determined. In that sense, the legal regulation of society, social (demographic) statistics, and religious dogmas have special objectivity.

Sociology of Suicide

In the book Suicide, Durkheim applies his approach, to study the phenomenon of suicide and shows the practical applicability of his approach to the study of specific social problems. Durkheim rejects approaches to the phenomenon of suicide, which explain this act through geographical, biological, or individual-psychological factors. He believes that suicide, and its different statistical rates, can only be explained by social facts. Durkheim uses official statistics, which show that suicide rates remain constant over long periods, to prove that individual factors, as causes of suicide, cannot explain such regularities. Only those factors that do not change over time can explain the statistical regularities of suicide rates, and those are the morphological elements of the social substratum and the moral density of a society.

By analyzing the statistical data, Durkheim determined that suicide rates differ between different European countries. However, he also found significant differences between different populations within the same state. Gender, as well as a person's marital and family status, have also affected suicide rates. Major social upheavals and wars have also had an impact on changes in suicide rates. However, the most important regularity that Durkheim noticed in the statistics was the fact that members of different religious groups (even within the same geographical area) have different suicide rates. Protestants had the highest suicide rates, followed by Catholics, while Jews had the lowest suicide rates. Religious doctrines were not the ones that influenced suicide rates, but it was the degree of internal integration of a religious group. Protestants are characterized by the highest degree of individualism, while Jews, due to their history of persecution and isolated social status, have the highest degree of internal connection and integration.

To explain the connection between a person's individual situation and the form and degree to which that person is integrated into society, on the one hand, with suicide rates, on the other hand, Durkheim introduces four basic types of suicide: 1) egoistic, 2) anomic, 3) fatalistic and 4) altruistic. Factors that affect different types of suicide are: the degree of integration of a society, how much and in what way are individuals integrated into society, and the level to which society regulates the individual behavior of each individual. Egoistic suicide is a consequence of insufficient integration of the individual into the everyday life of the society in which he or she lives. Individuals who follow only their own interests and who are therefore not integrated into the wider society are more likely to lose the meaning of life and fall into depression. Protestant religion emphasizes individualism, both in individual religious experience and in individual life choices, while, at the same time, it emphasizes the importance of a person's economic individualism and allows for selfish economic behavior. In addition, individuals who are not married and have no children are also less integrated into society and more prone to selfish behavior.

Anomic suicides occur at moments when there are rapid and significant social changes, which leads to a break in traditional values and norms. The loss of traditional rules of organizing individual life leads to the rise of insecurity in individuals. The desires of individuals are insatiable and if there is no social control that regulates and limits those desires, individuals can, if they do not achieve their goals, become very disappointed in life, and that leads them to suicide. Both anomic and egoistic suicides are much more common in developed industrial societies because in those societies there is an increase in individualism and a decline in traditional values and control. The altruistic type of suicide is characteristic of individuals who are extremely integrated into society and who are willing to sacrifice their lives to fulfill their duty to society - the best example is the traditional suicide of widows in India during their husbands' funerals. Fatalistic suicide is also characteristic of traditional societies, in which rules and social control prevent individuals from achieving some basic life goals – an example is high rates of suicide among slave populations.

Sociology of Religion

Durkheim examines the nature of religion, and what makes religion specific in relation to similar social phenomena, in the book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912). To explore religion, he pays attention to what he considered to be the most primitive and simplest form of religious life, and that is the totemistic religion of Australian Aborigines. Durkheim did not observe the Aborigines directly but used the ethnographic data of other scientists. Australian Aborigines lived in societies that were divided into several clans, each of which was relatively independent, but the rule of exogamy applied when marrying, so each spouse had to be a member of another clan. Each clan was characterized by great cooperation and solidarity, and that solidarity was symbolized by a specific totem.

Totems were certain plants or animals from the environment in which the clan lived, and it was believed that the whole clan came from that plant or animal and was named after it, so there was a ritual avoidance of that totem. The visual symbolic representation of the totem, usually in the form of drawings on wood and stone, was called "churinga", in the Aboriginal language, and these churingas also represented sacred objects. Totems and churingas were, at the same time, symbols and markings of belonging to a certain clan. Totems were imbued with a mysterious and sacred force or principle (known as mana) and were therefore a source of moral rules (taboos) and principles. Totems were the most sacred objects in religious rituals, as visible manifestations of the totemic principle and god, but they also symbolized the whole society and its unity. That is why Durkheim concluded that while people are respecting the totem they are, actually, respecting society. This means that society itself, in this case, a specific clan, is an essential object of religious worship.

Durkheim's explanation is based on the fact that the individual is completely dependent on society to survive and function. Unlike other theoretical approaches to religion at the time, which assumed that religious beliefs were pure fabrications and lies, Durkheim concluded that all religions are always essentially true because the real source and object of religious worship is society. Every religion is presented as something sacred and untouchable, as something that is much more important than the individual, and gives moral rules of conduct and punishes if those rules are violated. However, what is really sacred and what really gives moral rules and sanctions, is society itself. Religion is thus only a symbolic expression of the sacralization of society itself.

Durkheim recognizes how social density influences changes in moral density in Aboriginal seasonal life. Aboriginal people spend part of the year in small groups, while in the second period the whole clan meets. During the periods when the whole clan gathers, many religious rituals and ceremonies are held, and individuals come to a state of excitement and exaltation. Religious rituals serve to channel the enormous excitement that comes when the fact that whole clan comes together. Durkheim distinguishes between religion and magic because magic is aimed at directly causing specific physical effects - positive or negative - which is not the case with religion. In addition, magic does not unite individuals into a single moral community, as religion does. This is how Durkheim come to his definition of religion: "(religion is) a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e., things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." (Durkheim, 1912).

Durkheim and Marcel Moss in their text Primitive Classification (1902) state that all classification systems and basic categories of knowledge are only a reflection of society, that is its material substratum (see more details in the Mauss).

Sociology in Practice

Durkheim believed that his sociology could serve as a basis for the political and ethical transformation of modern society. In modern society, society's control over the individual is decreasing, because the influence of religion, kinship groups, and the neighborhood is declining. Individuals are becoming too individualized and detached from any moral control of the wider society. This is exactly what Durkheim calls "anomie". Durkheim proposed the creation of corporations which, together with trade unions and professional associations, would lead to the formation of an authority that would be the basis of moral unity and a source of control over the behavior of individuals.

Other Durkheimians

French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) was a cousin and close associate of Emile Durkheim and significantly influenced the institutionalization of sociology and anthropology in France. Mauss is the co-founder of l'Institut Français de Sociologie (1924) and l'Institut d'Ethnologie (1926) both at the University of Paris and together with Durkheim and other associates, he is the founder of the magazine L'Année Sociologique, which he edited after Durkheim's death.

Mauss, together with Henri Hubert, another of Durkheim's collaborators, published the book Sacrifice and its Function (1964, in French 1899). In this book, they deviate from earlier evolutionary approaches to the phenomenon of sacrifice. They view sacrifice as a religious act in which the victim, the one who sacrifices, and all the objects used in the ritual, have a sacred status. Sacrifice is not a simple act of appeasing sacred forces, instead, the essence of sacrifice is the ritual transformation of the persons participating in the ritual. The victim has the role of mediator between the profane and the sacral sphere, so through sacrifice, the connection of these two spheres is realized. Since the sphere of the sacred is separated and forbidden, sacrifice is necessary for communication between the two spheres to be realized safely. The victim thus becomes a symbolic substitute for the person making the sacrifice. The ritual of sacrifice itself has its time phases - preparing the sacrifice, initiatory rituals, actual sacrifice, consuming the sacrifice afterward - but it also has a spatial organization - concentric circles corresponding to different levels of sacredness, while at the center are the victim and the person performing the sacrifice.

Mauss and Hubert collaborated again on the book A General Theory of Magic (2001, in French 1902a). They explain the nature of magic by studying the concept of mana used in Melanesian and Polynesian societies. In these societies, mana is a mystical force that is the basis of all magical beliefs. They extend the conclusions reached in the study of mana, to explain magical beliefs in general. In all societies, people believe in the mystical force that exists in nature and that connects all things and beings in it, and that force is the basis of the action of magic. The power contained in different objects, animals, people, and supernatural beings differs in intensity, and contacts between beings of different levels of magical power carry with them danger. In humans, magical powers are associated with bodily functions, especially with substances that leave the body. However, magic is, in essence, a social phenomenon, because it is shaped by social structure and rules. Magic carries a higher level of privacy, secrecy, and mystery than religion, while the effects of magic are more direct, so magic cannot be the basis for the formation of institutionalized religion. Magic as a practical and utilitarian activity is the forerunner of practical knowledge and technologies: medicine, metallurgy, botany, astronomy, etc.

Durkheim and Mauss published a study Primitive Classification (1967, in French 1902b) in which they presented the thesis that in primitive societies the main categories and elementary forms of classification correspond to the social organization of these societies. The categories and classifications that primitive societies use to organize various phenomena - time, space, animals, plants, causality, unity - are based on social organization, which in turn is based on individual psychology. They believe that the individual mind is not able to make classifications based on some objective parameters, instead, these classifications are based on social organization (kinship and marriage systems, housing patterns, group and economic activities), as well as on the specific relationship of society to the natural world. around itself. The authors, therefore, believe that "the classification of things reproduces the classification of men." The categorization of the world in the minds of individuals is not a consequence of an objective attempt to understand the natural world but represents an unconscious projection of social organization on the natural world.

Mauss and Durkheim collaborated again in writing an essay Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo (1979, in French 1905). The authors apply the rules of social morphology, the approach introduced by Durkheim, to the study of Eskimo (Inuit) societies. Social morphology studies what they call the "material substrate" of society: the size and density of the population, its distribution, its organization of society, and the intensity of interactions in a society. Eskimo societies go through seasonal variations that affect many aspects of social life: religious rituals, customary law, family organization, economic life, etc. During the summer, Eskimos live separately in single families, and in that period the intensity of social life and contacts are at a minimum, while in winter they gather in larger groups, so the intensity of social life is highest and the community is renewed. Quantitative changes in population density and interactions lead to qualitative changes in group consciousness and solidarity. The authors believe that a similar relationship of seasonal variations can be observed in other societies, and even European cities and villages (in winter, rural life is more isolated, while in summer it is filled with joint economic activities and social celebrations). Mauss and Durkheim emphasize the methodological importance of an exhaustive analytical study of a case because they believe that in this way a universal law can be proven.

In the book The Gift (2018, in French 1925), Mauss uses a method he calls the "method of precise comparison", to compare the relations of giving in the tribes of Oceania and North America, but also among the ancient Romans, Indians, and Germans. For primitive societies, the gift is a way to achieve peace, what Mauss calls "total prestation" and functions as a total contract. Total prestation, which creates a state of the continuous contract, applies to everything, everyone, and at all times. The gift creates a relationship of economic and moral reciprocity. Primitive society is divided into groups of different interests, but similar forces, for which the only way to survive is to choose between conflict or withdrawal. This aspect of these societies is not visible precisely because the gift prevents conflicts. The native's rationalization of the symbolism and function of the gift is, in fact, the rationalization of the deeper need to establish reciprocal relations, due to the danger of war.

The need to reciprocate, which is ingrained in the spirit of the gift, reduces the animosity that exists between groups. Refusal to give or receive a gift is, in fact, a refusal to establish an alliance and fellowship. In primitive societies, there is often no middle ground, that is, either a relationship of full trust or complete distrust will be established. Giving and receiving gifts is, at the same time, an economic, religious, and legal relationship between the two parties. Obligations, which arise from these relations, refer to the receiving, but also the obligatory return of gifts. Mauss, on the example of the custom of "potlatch" present in some North American tribes, shows how important the competitive side of giving gifts is, because the one who gives a bigger gift thus shows his status, and, at the same time, also increases his status in society.

In the article "Techniques of the Body" (1934), Mauss calls the techniques of the body specialized physical activities that reflect certain aspects of culture. Everyday physical activities are related to cultural expectations, with the author researching in detail what and how we work with our bodies. He believed that body techniques should be studied from a physiological, psychological, and sociological aspect.

French sociologist Célestin Bouglé (1870-1940) was a close associate of Durkheim and one of the editors of L'Année Sociologique. Unlike Durkheim, he believed that the sociological method should pay more attention to the individual consciousness of people. In his work Egalitarian Ideas (1899), he stated that egalitarian ideas are as much a product of modern society as they are its initiator. In his study of the caste regime in India in Essays on the Caste System (1971, in French 1908), Bugle concluded that such a hierarchical structure has an impact not only on the legal system but also on weak economic development. The essence of caste organization is united by three tendencies - prohibition and refusal of contacts between castes, hereditary specialization, and hierarchy - and the greatest benefit from such a system is the caste of Brahmins (religious leaders). Bugle was an advocate of the ideology of solidarity, which was quite widespread in France at the time.

French anthropologist and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) continued to study many topics that Durkheim also studied: the causes and statistics of suicides, collective consciousness, and social morphology. His approach to these topics was critical of Durkheim's approach. Unlike other of Durkheim's followers, he paid great attention to the social classes (especially the problems of the working class), as well as to urban sociology.

In the books On collective memory (1925) and The Collective Memory (1950), Halbwachs develops the theory of collective consciousness and collective memory. It brings the collective consciousness (mentality, needs, behaviors) in connection with production relations. In industrial societies, the hierarchical relationship of social classes becomes stable as different classes adopt different values and ideals. These different group consciousnesses ensure the cohesion of the group and its continuity. The values of the working class differ the most from the average values in society. He shifts the focus of working-class study from the relationship of production to the study of living standards and consumer habits. Collective memory is determined by social determinants. Collective memory is a social construct that changes throughout history, with social changes. Collective memory takes precedence over individual memory. He believes that collective memory differs between different classes and that the nobility knew best how to preserve memories of real events, the bourgeoisie subjected memory to utilitarian values, while the working class is indifferent to the past because it has inert behavior and changing composition.

Within the framework of social morphology, Halbwachs studied the population and religious groups, their relations, and their distribution within cities. He returns to one of Durkheim's most important topics - suicide. Halbwachs believes that Durkheim was wrong to focus on successful suicides. He notes that women are more likely to have "unsuccessful" and men "successful" suicides. He also changes the basis for explaining the differences in suicide rates between Catholics and Protestants and claims that it is not religion, but that lifestyle and housing patterns are crucial. Catholics mostly live in villages where there is greater social integration, while Protestants mostly live in cities, where individualistic values dominate.

French sociologist and anthropologist Robert Hertz (1881-1915) was one of the students of Durkheim and Mauss and was also a contributor to the journal L'Année Sociologique. Hertz is best known for his study of the collective notion of death and his contributions to the sociology of religion. He explores the duality in social structure. It aims to show that the meaning of perceived facts derives from their connection, as well as to reveal the hidden structural principles that lie behind these perceived facts. In the text "The Dominance of the Right Hand", he shows that the social and religious definition of the right hand influenced its primacy and not biological asymmetry. The right hand is an expression of the sacred, community and altar, order and harmony, prosperity and serenity; while the left hand symbolizes night, lawlessness, chaos, and evil. Most of what Hertz wrote was posthumously published in two books.

French sociologist, economist, and historian François Simiand (1872-1935) in the article "Historical Method and Social Sciences" (in French 1903) recommend that historians should break with their obsession with political and chronological data, and begin to develop a "difficult history", that would shed light on which patterns in history are constant and which patterns are repeating. In his book The Positive Method in Economy (in French 1912), Simiand presents a theory of "collective preferences" that opposes classical economic analysis.

Simiand's greatest contribution to the science of economics is his theory of long economic cycles, which is presented in the book Wages, Social Development and Money (in French 1932). After extensive historical research on prices, wages, economic productivity, and other economic parameters, Simiand concluded that there are two main economic cycles - the cycle of general economic expansion and the cycle of economic decline. He criticizes the classical economy, according to which there can be a static state of the economy. Economic cycles are influenced by many factors, of which socio-psychological ones are also important, such as people's trust in the economy. By studying the previous economic cycles and the factors that caused them, and reacting to changes promptly, it is possible to reduce the negative effects of these cycles. Simiand's theory of economic cycles has similarities with Nikolai Kondratieff's theory of the long cycles in the development of capitalism, but both theories emerged independently of each other.

Authors: Bouglé, Célestin; Durkheim, Émile; Halbwachs, Maurice; Hertz, Robert; Mauss, Marcel; Simiand, Francois. Bourgin, Hubert; Bourgin, Georges; Davy, Georges; Fauconnet, Paul; Hubert, Henri; Lapie, Paul; Levy, Emmanuel; Parodi, Dominique; Ray, Jean; Richard, Gaston.

Books:

Bouglé. Les idées égalitaires: Étude sociologique (1899);

- Essays on the Caste System (1971, in French 1908).

Durkheim. Division Of Labor In Society (2014, in French 1893);

- The Rules of Sociological Method: And Selected Texts on Sociology and its Method (2014, in French 1895);

- Suicide, a Study in Sociology (2007, in French 1897);

- Primitive Classification (1967, in French 1902);

- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (2012, in French 1912);

- Education and Sociology (1956, In French 1922);

- Sociology and Philosophy (1974, in French 1924);

- Moral Education, (2012, in French 1925);

- Socialism and Saint Simon (1962, in French 1928);