Durkheim I: Society and Social Facts

February 6, 2012 Instructor: Sarah Whetstone

Emile Durkheim

“Father of Sociology” (1858-1917) • Born in Epinal, France in 1858 • Grew up in a Jewish family-- his father was a rabbi.

• He was expected to follow tradition, but instead he dropped out of rabbinical school.

• Got into the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure, one of the best colleges in France

Emile Durkheim

• Committed himself to establishing sociology as a science, after drafting his doctoral thesis, The Division of Labor in Society, in 1886 • Appointed to teach the first official course in social science at the University of Bordeaux , completed many of his great works there • Known for four primary works: o o o o

The Division of Labor in Society The Rules of Sociological Method The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Suicide

o Died in 1917 at age 59

Importance of religion in social life Scientific study of morality Empirical observation; link to natural sciences

Influences on Durkheim

Comte’s use of scientific method to study society Spencer’s “organic analogy” of societies: idea of society as an organism that naturally evolves Concern with cohesion, function, order Commitment to rationalism Emile Durkheim’s Brain!

Durkheim – the “Functionalist”

“The laws governing the functioning and evolution of animal organisms provide a model for a natural science of society” (134).

Durkheim argued that each part of the social system functions to serve the whole, just like the various organs in the human body function to keep the whole organism alive. Concerned with how things work together to produce order.

Used the “organism” metaphor and other concepts from biology to describe social life.

Key Concepts: “The Rules of Sociological Method” (1895)

• Social fact : a key concept in sociology, the domain of sociological study, what the social “is” • Sociology is the “study of social facts.” • Social facts as

sui generis

phenomena – External to the individual – Objective “things” – Related through cause/effect to other social facts • Institution : a modern term for a social fact • Rules of sociological method : basic principles for the study social facts – how we should proceed

the

Social Facts

of life

EXTERNAL to INDIVIDUALS:

“any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint” – or - “any way of acting which is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of own, independent of having an individual manifestation” (147).

CAN ACT ON INDIVIDUALS:

Values, cultural norms, institutions, or social structures capable of shaping our behavior

Social Facts are “Sui Generis”

Latin for "of their own kind" "The whole does not equal the sum of its parts; it is something different, whose properties differ from those displayed by the parts from which it is formed." -Society is not just a collection of individuals, but has its own characteristics independent of the individuals who comprise it.

-Social facts correspond to the

conception or experience that the group shares

, not just an individual’s thought or experience. -Social facts have constraining power .

Social facts are known through other social facts: “Rules,” p. 141

“It is important to know not the way in which a particular thinker individually represents a particular institution, but the conception that the group has of it… This conception is indeed the only socially effective one. But it cannot be known through mere inner observation, since it is not wholly and entirely within any one of us; one must therefore find some external signs which make it apparent. Furthermore, it did not arise from nothing: it is itself the result of external causes which must be known in order to be able to appreciate its future role.” SOCIAL FACTS EXPLAIN OTHER SOCIAL FACTS

What are Social Facts?

Social institutions, social activities, roles, laws, beliefs, values, customs, norms, ways of acting and thinking… FUZZY CONCEPT!

State forms, family types, property rights, punishment, notions of responsibility, religious beliefs, language, signs, proper behavior, kinds of political authority ….

SOCIAL NORMS AS SOCIAL FACTS: THE ELEVATOR EXPERIMENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJIO-xOD364&feature=related

Using the Sociological Imagination way of seeing Social Facts … is a • Sociological Imagination links personal troubles to public issues • Examples: – Divorce – Poverty – Suicide – as famously studied by Durkheim himself!

– Racial composition of our social networks – Drug abuse

Small Group Discussion: Social Facts

Get in your groups and come up with a social fact we have not mentioned.

– Define the social fact and explain how it is a collective reality, external to the individual.

– How does the social fact also act upon individuals to shape behavior? – How might we study the social fact as an “objective thing?” Can we measure it? How?

– What other social facts can be linked to your social fact to explain it?

Discuss these questions and nominate one or two members to share with class.

Rules for Explanation of Social Facts

– We must treat social facts as objective “things” • Look for social facts in “objective outcomes” – We must separate cause and function (148) – The causes of a social fact’s specific form lie in external conditions--other social facts.

• We explain social facts with other social facts – “The function of a social fact must always be sought in the relationship that is bears to some social end” (155).

• Durkheim as functionalist – segments of society function to ultimately maintain social order

Small Group Discussion: Rules of Sociological Method

1) Move through the “Rules” section – Durkheim’s methodology– and see if you can find any part of it to critique. What might be some potential problems or obstacles to doing sociology this way?

2) Do you agree with D’s functionalist perspective that all social segments must function to maintain social order?

3) Think about Marx as a scholar-activist and compare that to the kind of scholar D seems to be– Similarities, differences?