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Émile Durkheim: Social Order and Public Health

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The Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine

Abstract

In this chapter, concepts developed by Émile Durkheim will be used and applied to public health to explore the role of public health in contemporary society. The first section contains a brief biography of Durkheim, and in the second, relevant concepts will be explained, focusing on Durkheim’s concerns for social solidarity; the importance of his particular ontological position grounded in the concept of homo duplex; and the moral forces of anomie, egoism, altruism and fatalism that he sees as underlying social order. His view that contemporary society suffers from an excess of anomie and egoism, and that social institutions need to develop to temper those forces, is discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

    Kevin Dew (Professor of Sociology)

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  1. Kevin Dew
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Australia

    Fran Collyer (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

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© 2015 Kevin Dew

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Dew, K. (2015). Émile Durkheim: Social Order and Public Health. In: Collyer, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137355621_5

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