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EMILE DURKHEIM
Sociology
- “science of institutions, of their genesis and of their functioning” (Durkheim, 1895) Sui Generis
- The "total is not simply a sum of independent units... but is itself a new fact sui generis, with its own unity, individuality and consequently its own nature—a nature dominantly Social" _- Something of its own kind
- Society has an existence of its own, apart from the individuals in it, and thus a proper subject of study_ Social Facts
- “ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, external to the individual and endowed with the power of coercion , by reason of which they control him ” (Durkheim, 1959)
- Are social forces in our environment that influence us but which we cannot change or control Three general types of Social Facts a. Material Facts Nature of society ● Social structures (statuses, roles, social institutions) ● Morphological facts, such as population size and density, and geographic location _- Features of society
- Under these facts are social structures and morphological facts
- Social structures include social institutions, roles and statuses, while morphological facts are population size, density, and geographical location_ b. Nonmaterial Facts
- Norms and values
- Collective representations
- Collective consciousness - Social facts which do not have a material reality include norms and values, collective representations, and collective consciousness c. Social currents “ "the great movements of enthusiasm, indignation, and pity in
a crowd"— which do not arise in any one individual consciousness (Durkheim, 1895)
- The waves of enthusiasm and indignation that sweep across _members of the society
- Characteristics of society_ Social facts can only be explained through other social facts, not in terms of "states of individual consciousness" (Durkheim, 1895, p. 110). SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF SOCIAL FACTS a. Function “Correspondence between the fact under consideration and the general needs of the social organism” (Durkheim, 1895). A social fact should be examined based on empirical evidence rather than preconceived notions about the social phenomenon to determine whether it is “normal” or “pathological” and if it still conforms with the "conditions which determined this generality in the past" and whether the conditions still apply. b. Causation For Durkheim (1895), “sociological explanations of social facts must address causation, but as ‘ social phenomena evidently escape the control of the experimenter, the comparative method is the only one suited to sociology ’” (cited in Adams and Sydie, 2002, p. 98)
Measures of Social Cohesion ● Egoism: refers to an individual's “lack of integration” in a social group ● Anomie: refers to normlessness or the collectivity’s lack of moral regulation over an individual ● Altruism: “ego is not its own property”; individual lacks autonomy and is willing to sacrifice one’s own life for the benefit of the group or collectivity Types of Suicide Anomic Suicide ● Prevalent during times of abrupt changes in society, wherein individuals experience a lack of moral direction. Egoistic Suicide ● Occurs due to the “weakening of social fabric” (Durkheim, 1897). ● Prevalent in individualistic societies Altruistic Suicide ● Sacrificing one’s life for the benefit of others. Examples
- are primitive human sacrifice, suicide bombers and soldiers. Fatalistic Suicide ● Result of excessive regulation, of “persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline ● Individual decides to take his/her life because of excessive regulation or they cannot handle the rules and regulation Findings Marriage/Family " From the standpoint of suicide, marriage is more favorable to the wife the more widely practiced divorce is; and vice versa " (Durkheim, 1987) ● Suicide rates were generally higher among men than women. ● Marriage prevents men from committing egoistic suicide and anomic suicide (gives men a sense of “moral calmness and tranquility). ● Marriage restrains women: In places where divorce was unavailable, suicide rates among married women were higher.
These are characterized as fatalistic suicide due to excessive sexual regulation. Religion Analyzed religion based on degree of social cohesion, rather than religious doctrine. ● The spiritual and social bonds among Catholics prevent members from committing suicide. Suicide rates tend to be higher among Protestants as they are “more morally and spiritually isolated” (Appelrouth and Edles, 2018, p. 111). Collective Conscience ● “totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society” that “forms a determinate system which has its own life” (Durkheim, 1893/1984:38-39) ● Set of common beliefs, values, and behaviors that are found within a society Two Types of Solidarity a. Mechanical Solidarity
- characteristic of small, traditional societies
- shared collective conscience
- typified by feelings of likeness and “oneness”
- People feel “one and the same,” rooted in everyone doing/feeling
- the same thing.
- • E.g., everyone in the community is harvesting crops b. Organic Solidarity
- “type of solidarity in which each person is interdependent with others, forming a complex web of cooperative associations.”
- Solidarity comes from “cultivating individual differences and knowing that each is doing her part for the good of the whole.”
- The concept of division of labor
PUNISHMENT
Repressive Sanctions (Mechanical Solidarity)
- Emotional Reaction (instinctive and unreflective action)
- Tendency to surpass the severity of the offense
- Solely based on conscience collective ● Repressive sanctions correspond to mechanical solidarity. Involves violent sanctions or severe punishment. ● Durkheim argues that the purpose of repressive (criminal) sanctions is not deterrence but the reaffirmation of the collective conscience. Restitutive Sanctions (Organic Solidarity)
- “exercised only through particular functionaries: magistrates, lawyers, etc., who are able to fill this role in virtue of very specialised training.” ● Restitutive sanctions (in which individuals who have been treated wrongly by others can receive compensation) corresponds to organic solidarity. Durkheim argues that the shift from repressive to restitutive law is evidence of the changing nature of social solidarity. ● Asked to comply with the law or repay those who have been harmed by their act Sentenced to comply (“Judge speaks of law”) Specialized organs: courts The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
- Social life is inherently religious, for “religious force is nothing other than the collective and anonymous force” of society (Durkheim, 1912/1995, p. 210).
- Religion is a “system of ideas with which the individuals represent to themselves the society of which they are members, and the obscure but intimate relations which they have with it... for it is an eternal truth that outside of us there exists something greater than us, with which we enter into communion” (ibid:257) Religion - Social Function of Religion Communal Function of Religion Ritual
- “as these are practices (not beliefs and values), they can unite a social group regardless of individual
differences in beliefs or strength of convictions. It is the common experience and focus that binds the participants together” (Appelrouth and Edles, 2008, p. 129)
- Can apply to secular practices
- E.g, Communion – represents unity of believers (McGuire 1997, p. 187 cited in Appelrouth and Edles, 2008, p. 129).
- Watching Basketball or Ms. Universe - Durkheim argues that religion in its most elementary sense is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to "sacred" things as distinguished from "profane" things of the mundane world. Communal Function of Religion Symbol - “Something that stands for something else. It is a representation that calls up collective ideas and meanings” (Appelrouth and Edles, 2008, p. 129) Symbols Sacred - “extraordinary” objects, ”above and beyond the everyday world Profane - objects that are part of the “everyday world of the mundane and routine” Symbolic meanings of objects continuously produced and reproduced
- His father died a few weeks after he confronted his father about his abusive treatment of his mother.
- Despite battling with psychological issues, Max managed to write his most celebrated work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism while travelling to the United States in 1904. - When he went back to Europe, he helped establish the Sociological Society in 1910. - He continued his intellectual activities, helped draft the constitution of the Weimar Republic, and gave lectures at University of Vienna - At 56 years old, Weber died of pneumonia in 1920. Sociology “a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects” (Weber, 1947, p. 88) ● is a science that attempts to interpret social action to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects. Verstehen (Interpretive Understanding) For Weber (1947, p. 88), social action can be studied “by virtue of the subjective meaning attached to it by the acting individual (or individuals), it takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby oriented in its course Sociological Methodology For Weber (1903), “ The type of social science which we are interested in is an empirical science of concrete reality.... Our aim is the understanding of the characteristic uniqueness of the reality in which we move. We wish to understand on the one hand the relationships and cultural significance of individual events in their contemporary manifestations and on the other the causes of their being historically TWO TYPES OF VERSTEHEN
- Direct Observational Understanding ( Aktuelles Verstehen )
- “is concerned with understanding the meaning of a given act” or “when we understand what the agent is doing” (Leat, 1972, p. 33). 2. Explanatory Understanding ( Erklarendes Verstehen )
- “Understanding of motivation according to Weber (1947) consists in placing human action ‘ in an intelligible and more inclusive context of meaning ’” (Marquis, 1968).
- “What is this supposed to signify?”
- According to Weber (1947) Erklarendes Verstehen consists of placing an action into “‘a relation of which the actor or actors can be said to have been aware and to which their actions have been oriented’” (cited in Marquis, 1968, p. 82) SOCIAL ACTION For Weber (1947), action is “only social if, and then only in so far as, it takes account of the behavior of someone else” …Action of a social character “is confined to cases where the actor's behavior is meaningfully oriented to that of others.”(cited in Tucker, 1965) For sociologists to formulate generalizations that can provide the basis for causal linkages, they need to examine the behavioral patterns typical for multiple individuals in a given situation (Adams and Sydie, 2002) **4 TYPES OF SOCIAL ACTION
- Instrumental rational action**
- the _"end, the means, and the secondary results are all rationally taken into account and weighed.”
- Social action is well thought out or strategically planned to achieve a goal._ 2. Value-rational action
- Based on a " _conscious belief in the value for its own sake of some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behavior, independently of its prospects of success”.
- Social actors believe that it is the “right” thing to do_ 3. Affectual action or emotional action
- “ an uncontrolled reaction to some exceptional stimulus ” 4. Traditional action _- “almost automatic reaction to habitual stimuli which guide behavior in a course that has been repeatedly followed”
- Based on long-standing norms and customs — “It has always been done this way”_ IDEAL TYPE
- Selection of personnel is competitive and based upon demonstrated merit.
- Specialized division of labor allows for the more efficient completion of assigned tasks.
- Governed by formal, impersonal rules that regulate all facets of the organization. THE POSITION OF THE OFFICIAL I. OFFICE HOLDING AS A “VOCATION” Vocation (Beruf)
- Requires “prescribed course of training”
- Special examinations as prerequisites of employment Duty (Pflicht)
- “entrance into an office, including one in the private economy, is considered an acceptance of a specific duty of fealty to the purpose of the office in return for the grant of a secure existence.” II. The Personal Position of the Official A. Social esteem and status convention B. Appointment versus election: Consequences for expertise. C. “ Tenure for life ” or security of tenure D. Rank as the basis of regular salary E. Fixed career lines and status rigidity THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM How can one achieve success that merited and marked a person as God’s elect? Rationalization “the process in which social interaction and institutions become increasingly governed by methodical procedures and calculable rules.” - a process where social interaction and institutions are governed by methodical procedures and calculable rules Lost Meaning and Purpose or the big WHY? DISENCHANTMENT OF THE WORLD IRON CAGE
“Routine activity on the world” or dutiful work in a calling (a value rational action) was the protestant ethic. But the religious ethic was eventually replaced with the more “technical and economic” pursuits that enclosed individuals like an “iron cage.” “No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development it might well be truly said: ‘Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved’”
- an individual is enclosed in an iron cage because religious ethic was replaced by technical and economic pursuits caused by rationalization and modernization
HARRIET MARTINEAU
them.” (Martineau 1877, I, p. 143; cited in Hall, 1991, p. 291)
necessarianism
● John Locke’s Two Kinds of Knowledge : knowledge of God as a result of revelation, and knowledge that is the product of experience. “Necessarianism denied free will…The escape from such absolute determinism was through the education of reason, which allowed individuals to understand the forces that determine behavior and, by understanding, to take measures to change and improve the world” (Adams and Sydie, 2002, p. 47). For Martineau (1837, p. 120), “ empirical study of the social world would give human beings the means to change oppressive conditions” (cited in Adams and Sydie, 2022, p. 48): “ The great impediment to the true understanding of the purposes of human life is the prevalent ignorance or error respecting the primary laws of sensation and thought," and this ignorance perpetuated "great social evils" ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
- The law of nature is the only one by which mankind at large can be judged”
- "every prevalent virtue and vice is the result of the particular circumstances amid which the society exists" (Martineau, 1838a, p.
- (cited in Adams and Sydie, 2022, p. SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATION The "powers of observation must be trained, and the habits of method in arranging the materials presented to the eye must be acquired, before the student possesses the requisites for understanding what he contemplates" (Martineau, 1838a, p. 6) THEORY: EVALUATIVE FRAMEWORK “It is not enough for the traveler to have an active understanding, equal to an accurate perception of individual facts in themselves; he must also be in possession of principles which may serve as a rallying point for his observations, and without which he cannot determine their bearings, or be secure in
putting the right interpretation upon them" (Martineau, 1838a, p. 15) How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838b) ● “First known systematic methodological treatise in sociology” (Hill, 1991, p. 292) ● Practical guide on how to study society and address problems of bias, generalization, samples, reactivity, interviews, corroboration, and data recording technique (Hill,
“Before Karl Marx, and decades before Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, Martineau sociologically examined social class, forms of religion, types of suicide, national character, domestic relations and the status of women, delinquency and criminology, and the intricate interrelations between repressive social institutions and the individual” (Hill, 1991, p. 292) SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS MANNERS
MORALS
- Cultural values and beliefs PRELIMINARY DATA GATHERING
- Best to begin "with the study of THINGS, using the DISCOURSE OF PERSONS as a commentary upon them" The "eloquence of Institutions and Records" was "more comprehensive and more faithful than any variety of individual voices" (Martineau, 1838a, p. 63-64) SOCIETY IN AMERICA In the the three-volume study of American democracy, Martineau offers a critical analysis of “America's ability to reconcile the needs of unity and plurality and of its capacity for democratic reform, especially regarding slavery and the inequality of women” ( Vetter, 2008, p. 424). FEMINISM AND ANTI-SLAVERY POSITION “I have said it till my listeners and readers are probably tired of hearing it— that there
relationships between individuals and their broader social contexts, enabling a deeper understanding of social structures and changes. ● Definition: ○ Scientific study of human life and social interactions. ● Sociological Imagination: ○ Understanding the relationship between individual circumstances and broader social contexts. ● History: ○ Development of sociological thinking through classical theorists like Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. ● Social Structures: ○ Patterns in how people behave in relationships. ○ Includes norms, values, and organized systems of social activity. ● Agency and Structure: ○ Agency: The capacity to act independently and shape life trajectories. ○ Structure: Social forces that influence individual choices (e.g., gender, race, class). ● Social Change: ○ Examines how transformations affect individual lives and societal structures. ○ Influenced by industrialization and the emergence of bureaucratic organizations. ● Theoretical Perspectives: ○ Symbolic Interactionism: Focuses on meanings created through social interactions. ○ Microsociology vs. Macrosociology: Analysis at small group levels versus large-scale social systems. ● Troubles & Issues: ○ Distinction between personal troubles and public issues influenced by larger social structures. Sociological Imagination ● Overview: The sociological imagination is the ability to understand the interplay between individual circumstances and
broader social contexts. It emphasizes how personal experiences are shaped by larger social structures, enabling a deeper understanding of societal issues. ● Individual Circumstances: ○ Personal troubles vs. public issues. ○ Private matters related to self and immediate environment. ○ Resolution often lies within the individual. ● Broader Social Context: ○ Public issues transcend local environments. ○ Influenced by historical and social structures. ○ Understanding requires examining societal patterns. ● Social Structures: ○ Underlying regularities in human behavior and relationships. ○ Ordered systems of social activity and norms. ○ Social constructions maintained over time through collective agreement. ● Importance of Sociological Imagination: ○ Provides different perspectives on social reality. ○ Assists in assessing policy impacts. ○ Encourages self-enlightenment and awareness of societal conditions. ○ Develops research skills for understanding social problems. ● Theoretical Perspectives: ○ Classical theorists: Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber. ○ Symbolic interactionism focuses on meanings created through interactions. ● Levels of Analysis: ○ Microsociology: Examines small group interactions. ○ Macrosociology: Analyzes large-scale social systems. ● Agency and Structure: ○ Free will vs. determinism in shaping life trajectories. ○ Life chances influenced by gender, race, and class. ○ Navigational capacity and aspirations impact individual choices. Social Structures
