Download Critically assess the concepts used by Emile Durkheim in his

Critically assess the concepts used by Emile Durkheim in his
analysis of the social changes caused by rapid
industrialization and modernization.
Distinguished himself from Marxist insistence on economic factor as the
determinant of social change and Weber’s famous view on the great influence
of religion, Durkheim tries to explain social change by means of explaining the
society itself apart from its individual members, through the analysis of the
functional relationship between ‘social facts’. By differentiating between social
solidarity - one of the most important social fact that he is concerned with,
Durkheim developed a series of theories to interpret the social change caused
by industrialization and modernization.
Durkheim’s analysis of society is based on his view of social facts. Unlike his
colleagues, he sees human society as an objectively existing entity preceding
the individuals who comprise it. He believes that the behaviours of each
individual do not evolve from one's desire, rather, these behaviours are lead by
the social system. In his opinion,
‘Members of society are constrained by ‘social facts’, by ‘ways of acting,
thinking and feeling, external to the individual, and endowed with a
power of coercion, by reason of which they control him’. Beliefs and
moral codes are passed on from one generation to the next and shared
by the individuals who make up a society…’ (Haralambos, 2000, pp.1035)
For example, if one buys a Rolls-Royce, the transaction does not occur simply
because s/he wants the car, in deed s/he is also trying to earn certain respect
and acceptance from the other individuals in the society. Durkheim coined the
term ‘social facts’ to describe such societal respects and acceptance which he
believed can hardly be modified. And from a functionalist stand point, these
facts will be passed on from generation to generation by means of education,
religious practice and other relevant social functions. Therefore, the person’s
will to buy a Rolls-Royce is probably inherited from his/er family tradition or
caused by the influence of advertisement promoting certain social value. Thus,
Durkheim believes that society stands apart from its members when being
analysed.
Furthermore, Durkheim tried to explain the social fact by seeking out its origin
and the ingredients indispensable to its continual existence. He believes that
‘The determining cause of a social fact should be sought among the social facts
preceding it and not among the stats of individual consciousness.’
(Haralambos, 2000, pp.1035)Consequently that buying a Rolls-Royce in
exchange for prosperity and respect does not spring from the common desires
of purchasing high quality goods, rather the root is in the social fact which
refers to the human nature of respecting people who can ‘lead a better life’ in
capitalist society, partly influenced by the Protestant Ethic. (Haralambos, 2000,
pp.449)
Durkheim then looks into the continual existence of social facts and discovers
that ‘Social facts therefore continue in existence because they contribute in
some way to the maintenance of society, because they serve ‘some social
end’’ (Haralambos, 2000, pp.1035) He believes that a particular social fact
could only exist when it, in someway, contributes to the function of the society.
With a successfully established base for the analysis on society, Durkheim
goes on to argue that the existence of the society depends on the cohesion of
its members. In his ‘The Division of Labour in Society’ (1893), he used ‘Social
solidarity’ to describe such kind of social cohesion. He believes the ‘collective
conscience’, comprised by series of shared values, beliefs, and moral principles,
is essential to maintain the social solidarity. Durkheim begins with human
nature and constructs the ‘homo duplex’ model to interpret the dual motivation
of individual behaviour. He states that self-interest exists in every individual of
the society and people's behaviour therefore has a tendency to follow such
basic instincts and is often led by biological needs. However, social integration is
not completely impossible, thanks to another side of human nature - the ability
to accept the collective conscience.
Durkheim then goes on to explain the transformation from pre-industrial
society to industrial society based on his theory of social solidarity. He sees
the social solidarity in pre-industrial society as a mechanical unity based on
the similarities of individuals. His view is that
‘The force of these social links is such as to discourage individual
autonomy, and the social whole envelops the individual so completely
that there is no distinction between the individual conscience and the
collective conscience.’ (Morrison, 2000, pp.129)
Durkheim claims that this type of solidarity can only exist in pre-industrial
society where ‘the division of labour is based on social cooperation with little
or no specialization’ and ‘social links between individuals based on custom,
obligation and sentiment.’ Its existence also requires low degree of individual
autonomy or individualism and ‘a system of penal law based on repressive
sanctions
which
punish
individual
transgressions
swiftly
and
violently.’(Morrison, 2000, pp.129)
However, with the rapid industrialization and modernization toward the end
of 19th century, the intensive development of division of labour eventually
brought an end to the mechanical solidarity and reestablished a new form of
social unity, which was termed ‘organic solidarity’ by Durkheim. He pointed
out that
‘the division of labour alters the nature of the social links since these
links no longer tie individuals directly to society, but rather establish
social relations between individuals based on mutual economic
interdependence.’ (Morrison, 2000, pp.130)
With a careful contrast- and-comparison, Durkheim finds that unlike
mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity is based on the differences between
individuals. And such solidarity is still spacious enough to allow for further
division between individual conscience and collective conscience. However,
the collective conscience is still the essence to maintain the social unity and
can not be neglected. Nevertheless Durkheim also perceived the potential
instability of this type of solidarity caused by the substance of division of labour
from the view of human nature. His ‘homo duplex’ model interprets the fact
with the self-interest behind an individual's behaviour. And when this side of
human nature predominates, it will seriously affect one's ability to accept the
collective conscience. Consequentially, self-interest will become the sole
guideline of social life and the disintegration of the society will take place.
For Durkheim, this collapse of a society is an extreme case of ‘Anomie’, the term
he used to describe the society under normlessness. According to him, anomie
will occur when the rapid social change seriously disrupt the existing moral
regulation and common conscience while the new social order is yet to be
formulated. Norms will be questioned and the level of individual’s life desire
will be confused. This disruption therefore will encourage the dependence on
self-interest, thus reducing the degree of social integration. In practice, the
road to industrialization becomes the road to anomie: people become
unreligious and insatiable, indefinitely seeking material satisfaction; the sense
of social duty will be eroded while egoism and individualism peak. In his work
Suicide (1897), Durkheim tries to prove this by giving detailed statistics and
illustrations of climbing suicide rates, a social fact which he believed to be the
outcome of industrialization. The high rates of Egoistic suicide and Anomic
suicide during the period of industrialization were enumerated and compared
to the stable date in the period of pre-industrial of Europe.
In order to solve these problems, a theory of division of labour at society level
was brought in by Durkheim, referred to as ‘occupational association’. To
prevent the self-interest side of an individual from overpowering, he proposed
to reconstruct the moral order of industrial society through the function of
occupational association, that is, to divide people into different social groups
according to their profession. He believed that ‘economic activity should be
permeated by ideas and needs other than individual ideas and needs’
(Haralambos, 2000, pp.1035), that is, the ideas and needs of the whole
society which represents in the form of occupational associations. The unfair
property distribution system aim at individuals such as the inheritance
mechanism should be abandoned, and be replaced by a reward system that
based on the differentiation of contributions among associations.
In this case, Durkheim insists that social control would be reestablished at the
level of professional groups, not the individuals; the members in associations
could have a chance to expect a right standard of their economic rewards
under a reasonable limit, the consensus would therefore be reestablished
under the circumstance of occupational association. The state will then
reintegrate these consensuses at a national level and bring out the collective
conscience of the whole society. The organic solidarity in industrial society will
therefore be enforced.
It is a surprise to find that Durkheim’s theory of social change on solidarity is
almost tailored to interpret the China's most recent ‘New Industrial Revolution’.
(People’s Daily, 2002) After its famous economic reform in 79, China’s economy
has been soaring at an exceptionally fast pace in the past 20 years. This fuelled
economic growth led to series of inevitable social changes. Based on Durkheim,
the traditional Chinese virtues of being abstemious, assiduous and honest are
disrupted. Instead, the personality under long term oppression is suddenly
released and allowed to evolve to the other extreme of high level
individualism. The government failed to establish new norms and moral orders
simply because it can’t convince the society. Ignoring the existing social reality,
the government continues to hammer the sole belief of Marxism and socialism
into its people. It is obviously useless to reconstruct to social moral order and
as a result, a more intense anomie is initiated.
While Durkheim claimed that society can only survive if ‘education
perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity (of its members) by fixing the
child from the beginning the essential similarities’ (Durkheim, 1961, pp.87-8),
the children in China, however learned to make competition serve their own
interests (getting admitted into the best academic facilities, earning respects
from peers) rather than how to cooperate with each other and share their
similarities.
To make matters worse, rather than being people's servants for the entire
country, corruptions and business scandals are not uncommon among the
high position officials and merchants. Lacking the guiding norms of collective
conscience, adults are forced to behave according to their basic instincts.
However, based on Durkheim’s view of ‘functional crime’ that indicates ‘crime
as an anticipation of the morality of the future’ (Haralambos, 2000, pp.354),
some modern sociologists speculate that this corrupted state of China is the
‘primitive accumulation of capital’ which is a symbol of initial stage of
capitalism and also essentially the premonition of the approaching capitalist
society.
As one of the founders of the modern sociology, Durkheim’s theory had been
attacked by many sociologists including Marxists and Weberian. For instance,
on the view of occupational association, Marxists see professions as a tool
that powerful groups of the society use to serve their own interests while
Weberian thought professions only defend the benefits of the specific social
groups. On the other side, Ferdinand Tonnies also rejected Durkheim’s analysis
of social solidarity, seeing that solidarity is disintegrating during the transition
from Gemeinschaft (community) to Gesellschaft (societal) (Grint, 1998, p95).
However, illustrated with the situation in modern China, many of Durkheim’s
theories should still be seriously considered especially when analysing the
changes of human society.
As a virtual functionalist, Emile Durkheim produced series of concepts based
on his unique interpretation on ‘social facts’. He concentrates himself on the
analysis of social solidarity by explaining how it changed by the development of
division of labour and showing its importance of integration of a society. He
also expounds the situation in which social solidarity might break down and
termed ‘anomie’ to define such scenarios. His concepts have proven
themselves to be still up to date and valuable by providing a reasonable
explanation to the current situation in the Chinese society.
Reference
Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. (2000) Sociology, Themes and Perspectives 5th ed.
England, Collins Educational Publisher, London, the United Kingdom
Morrison, K. (2000) Marx Durkheim Weber, SAGE Publications Ltd., London, the
United Kingdom
Observer Report: China’s Industrialization to Take 20 Years: Academician, People’s
Daily, 28th Oct. 2002, Beijing, China
Durkheim, E. Moral Education, The Free Press, Glencoe
Grint, K (1998) The Sociology of Work 2nd ed., Polity Press, Cambridge, the United
Kingdom
Bibliography
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Durkheim, E. Moral Education, The Free Press, Glencoe
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United Kingdom
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Morrison, K. (2000) Marx Durkheim Weber, SAGE Publications Ltd., London, the
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Mulkay, M.J. (1971) Functionalism, exchange and theoretical strategy, Routledge and
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Observer Report: China’s Industrialization to Take 20 Years: Academician, People’s
Daily, 28th Oct. 2002, Beijing, China