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EMILE DURKHEIM & TALCOTT PARSONS

EARLY FUNCTIONALISTS:

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EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)

The Sociology that we know today is as a result of the works of Emile Durkheim.

Like Comte, and other academics at the time, Durkheim was alarmed at the chaos he saw in society.

It was important therefore, to scientifically observe and study this society and the social dynamics to find out what was going on.

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While Auguste Comte left the field of Sociology into disrepute, Durkheim attempted to re-establish the discipline.

He therefore became the first French academic Sociologist. It was no easy task.

Durkheim, like most early Sociologists were all academic men but were still considered by their colleagues as intruders representing a discipline that had little claim to legitimate status.

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He had a lot of work to do in order to make Sociology a discipline in its own right.

The very first attempt Durkheim made was to reduce the micro view of biology & psychology to explain social phenomena.

Rather, he decided to look at structures (institutions, norms & values), which for him determined mankind’s social problems.

Thus, Durkheim was also the first to successfully apply the macro theory of Sociology.

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Durkheim’s main contributions to Sociology: Functionalism Mechanical & Organic Solidarity Social Facts Collective Conscience Anomie Religion Suicide

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FUNCTIONALISM

Emile Durkheim is the founding father of Functionalism.

Functionalism is a theory in society that promotes the view that everything is functional, necessary, positive and beneficial albeit in small quantities in some cases.

They believe that parts of society continue to persist only if they served useful functions.

If not, they become obsolete.

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COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE A Collective Conscience is a shared

moral code that shapes individual consciousness.

Societies need this collective conscience (or shared morality) in order to function successfully.

Durkheim believed that EVERYONE in society shares some of the same ideas.

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SOLIDARITY

TYPE OF SOLIDARITY TYPE OF SOCIETY

MECHANICAL PRE-MODERN (AGRARIAN)

ORGANIC MODERN (INDUSTRIAL)

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Whereas the rest of the intellectuals and philosophers at the time opposed individualism, Durkheim promoted it.

In his first book “The Division of Labour in Society” (1893), Durkheim explored the sources of order and stability in the modern world.

For him, selfish people need one another to survive.

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Division of Labour is the manner in which labour is allocated to various people.

In a traditional society, one person would have many tasks to do.

In a modern society, one person would usually do one task and duties are specialised.

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Mechanical Solidarity – This occurred in the traditional (agricultural) society.

In these societies, everyone did similar tasks and many of the interests in the society would coincide with each other. We would all need each other.

This likeness was important because this mechanical solidarity (unity) would have led the society to share a collective conscience (similar values, goals, norms, ideas and beliefs).

It was deemed mechanical by Durkheim because the community functioned together like a simple machine.

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Now while this may have been a good thing and this may have held pre-modern societies together, there would also have been negative implications.

For example, in pre-industrial Europe, there would have been many farm lands. These farms would raise sheep, cows, chickens and grow several crops (maize & barley). Several people would be doing the same kind of job and rearing the same kind of animals and plants. If there was a drought, then the entire society would result in chaos because it would bring catastrophe to the entire group.

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Organic Solidarity – This occurs in the modern industrial type of society.

In this type of society, everyone is selfish.

The division of labour is distinct and specialised.

Everyone is responsible for doing their task and their task alone.

They do not interfere in another person’s job.

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The society is more diversified and people are executing different tasks thus their interests are different.

If there is a high crime rate, and party promoters are negatively affected, security firms may be positively affected as there is a greater demand for these companies.

As the division of labour in society became more complex, people became more different and so too did their interests, values, etc.

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So if the collective conscience was no longer holding society together as much as it used to, what was?

Durkheim believed that being different would not mean an end to group solidarity, rather as people became more specialized and different, they grew more dependent on each other.

Whereas people were held together in traditional societies by being similar, it was actually dissimilarity that kept them together in modern societies.

Therefore, the solidarity became more fluid and natural (hence the term organic).

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So no matter how free and individualistic we wanted to be in modern society, we have no choice but to maintain social ties as we are linked to the bigger institutions and structures in the society.

In his book “the Division of Labour in Society,” Durkheim argued that the way that modern society is divided forces people to interact and maintain social relationships with one another.

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Durkheim actually was able to make an important discovery about the relationship between social solidarity & division of labour and even identified the key to understanding things sociologically.

This notion was to focus not on the psychological and biological attributes of individuals but on the nature of society itself which includes the institutions.

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Therefore, the main discovery for Durkheim at this juncture in his research was:

Social phenomena actually do exist!

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SOCIAL FACTS

Durkheim defined Sociology as “the scientific study of social facts or phenomena.”

Social facts are those things in society that transcend or are bigger than individuals.

Social facts were the domain of Sociology. He believed that people were constrained

by social facts: ways of acting, thinking and feeling in a society.

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Social facts were caused by other social facts (e.g. the influence of religion on suicide rates) but could also be explained in terms of the functions they performed for society.

Social facts could not be determined by individual facts or exceptions, rather it is becomes a scientific fact because there is an observable trend confirming it as a truth or reality.

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ANOMIE

Modern industrial societies could be disrupted by the existence of anomie (state of normlessness) and egoism (where individuals are not integrated into social groups).

Both of these stemmed from a complex division of labour. People did specialised jobs, and this weakened solidarity in society.

For Durkheim, too much negativity could bring instability & disrupt the social order & stability.

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For Durkheim, men were creatures with insatiable wants.

These desires could only be held in check by external societal controls.

When social regulations break down, the controlling influence of society on individual propensities is no longer effective and individuals are left to their own devices.

Such a state of affairs Durkheim calls anomie, a term that refers to a condition of relative normlessness in a whole society or in some of its component groups.

Anomie does not refer to a state of mind, but to a property of the social structure.

It characterizes a condition in which individual desires are no longer regulated by common norms and where, as a consequence, individuals are left without moral guidance in the pursuit of their goals.

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Durkheim believed that total anomie is impossible.

For him, anomie usually occurs when there is drastic social change.

Rapid social change may create anomie either in the whole society or in some parts of it (e.g. Economic Depression).

Durkheim (like most Functionalists) does not like social change and if it must occur, he prefers evolutionary change.

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SUICIDE

Durkheim was most famous for his study on suicide.

It was the first sociological study ever conducted which is why it was so famous.

Suicide focused on a large amount of statistics from various sources, thus attempting to prove to the world that one could scientifically study the phenomenon of any social issue.

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Some of Durkheim’s assumptions:1. Suicide exists in ALL societies around

the world.2. Therefore suicide was “normal” or a

regular occurrence.3. He rationed that the reason for high

rates of suicide was not individualistic and blamed disintegrating forces at work in the social structure.

4. Therefore, the rates of suicide could help determine the reason for suicide.

5. He argued there were many types of suicide.

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TYPES OF SUICIDE Emile Durkheim classified different types of suicides on the basis of

different types of relationship between the actor and his society.1) Egoistic suicide:

According to Durkheim, when a man becomes socially isolated or feels that he has no place in the society he destroys himself. This is the suicide of self-centred person who lacks altruistic feelings and is usually cut off from mainstream of the society.

2) Altruistic suicide:This type of suicide occurs when individuals and the group are too close and intimate. This kind of suicide results from the over integration of the individual into social proof, for example – hari-kari and Hindu wives’ figurative suicide ritual.

3) Anomic suicide:This type of suicide is due to certain breakdown of social equilibrium, such as, suicide after bankruptcy or after winning a lottery. In other words, anomic suicide takes place in a situation which has cropped up suddenly.

4) Fatalistic suicide:This type of suicide is due to overregulation in society. Under the overregulation of a society, when a servant or slave commits suicide, when a barren woman commits suicide, it is the example of fatalistic suicide

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Durkheim concluded that: Suicide rates are higher in men than

women (although married women who remained childless for a number of years ended up with a high suicide rate).

Suicide rates are higher for those who are single than those who are married.

Suicide rates are higher for people without children than people with children.

Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics and Jews.

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Suicide rates are higher among soldiers than civilians.

Suicide rates are higher in times of peace than in times of war.

Suicide rates are higher in Scandinavian countries and Japan.

The higher the education level, the more likely it was that an individual would commit suicide; however Durkheim established that there is more correlation between an individual's religion and suicide rate than an individual's education level; Jewish people were generally highly educated but had a low suicide rate.

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RELIGION

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For Durkheim, religion had the most important influence in society.

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), is regarded as one of Durkheim’s best and most mature works.

In this case study, Durkheim investigated the Australian Aborigines.

His conclusion from this study was that religion was social which emerge from collective representations and realities.

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For Durkheim, religion served the following purposes: It provided for a meaning of life It produced solidarity (especially in societies

with mechanical solidarity and to a lesser extent but still important to those with organic solidarity)

It reinforced morals and social norms held collectively by members of the society

It gave individuals a sense of belonging It provided authority figures for the society It provided social control, cohesion and

purpose It presented a means of communication &

gathering of individuals to reaffirm social norms

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Durkheim’s other main purpose of conducting his research was to find commonalities of religions across the world.

He posited that ALL religions were divided into the sacred and the profane. Although these views may have been different, they were similar in the sense that they both needed each other in order to survive.

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DURKHEIM’S RELEVANCE TO T&T

Do you think that Durkheim’s contributions are relevant to understanding contemporary society in Trinidad and Tobago?

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TALCOTT PARSONS (1902 – 1979)

The American Sociologist’s Contributions to Sociology: Founder of Structural Functionalism Functional Pre-requisites Pattern Variables Sexual Division of Labour

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STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Parsons believed that all societies needed a value consensus based upon shared goals.

Societies developed rules based upon this value consensus and norms about how people should behave, which fitted in with overall goals.

Where individuals are socialized to accept the values, goals and norms and where this works smoothly, social equilibrium is achieved.

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FUNCTIONAL PRE-REQUISITES

Parsons saw society as a system with four basic needs or functional pre-requisites: Goal Attainment Adaptation Integration Latency (Pattern Maintenance)

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1. Goal Attainment – The Government or political systems are responsible for setting goals.

2. Adaptation – The economy is the main institution concerned with this function.

3. Integration – Adjustment and conflict in society is maintained by the legal system or the law.

4. Latency (Pattern Maintenance) – maintenance of basic patterns or norms/values in society. Socializers or institutions responsible for socialization perform this role. For example – family, education, religion. Religion was the most important for Parsons.

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FUNCTIONAL PRE-REQUISITES

(BASIC NEEDS)

INSTITUTION(S)

GOAL ATTAINMENT GOVERNMENT

ADAPTATION ECONOMY

INTEGRATION LEGAL SYSTEM

LATENCY (PATTERN MAINTENANCE)

FAMILY, RELIGION, EDUCATION

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Pattern Variables – in order to understand how society changed and evolved over time, Parsons compared traditional and modern societies by using Pattern Variables A and Pattern Variables B.

TRADITIONAL SOCIETY

MODERN SOCIETY

PATTERN VARIABLES

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He saw a shift in the values of people from Pattern Variables A Pattern Variables B.

PATTERN VARIABLES A

(TRADITIONAL)

PATTERN VARIABLES B

(MODERN)

Ascription (STATUS) Achievement

Diffuseness (ROLE) Specificity

Particularism

(FAVOUR) Universalism

Affectivity (GRATIFICATION)

Neutrality

Collective-orientation

(INTERESTS)

Self-orientation

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SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR Parsons viewed that there was a specific

division of labour (i.e. how people worked and what tasks people did) based on their sex.

Males were therefore responsible for executing particular tasks because it was only natural and in their biological state that they should do so.

Females, on the other hand, because of their fragile state and biological difference, were limited to a particular set of duties and responsibilities.

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TALCOTT PARSONS’ RELEVANCE TO T&T

Do you think that Parson’s contributions are more relevant to understanding contemporary society in Trinidad and Tobago than Durkheim’s theories?

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BIBLIOGRAPHY McIntyre, Lisa. 2006. The Practical

Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Mc Graw Hill.

Haralambos, M. & Holborn, M. 2000. Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. 5th Ed. London: Harper Collins.

Cardiff University: School of Social Sciences. 2010. “Introduction to Sociology: Emile Durkheim.” Accessed 9th February 2014 http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/durkheim1.html.