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Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon pp 171–203Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)

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Abstract

Emile Durkheim established Sociology as a distinct, independent discipline and helped to institutionalize it. He also crafted a methodology appropriate for studying society scientifically. The analysis of capitalist, industrial society that Durkheim advanced was thought-provoking and controversial. Durkheim’s conviction that the emerging modern, industrial society was defined by economic, social, political and moral crises led him to reflect on the fate of the individual under conditions of modernity. At the same time, he saw the promise of modernity. His standing as a ‘founding father’ of the discipline and the canonical status accorded to his writings have both assured longevity and endurance to his theories and texts. Approaching Durkheim in unconventional modes can prompt alternative and novel readings of his theoretical and methodological contributions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    George Ritzer, The McDonaldisation of society: An investigation into the changing character of contemporary social life (Thousand Oaks, 1993) 18.

  2. 2.

    LaCapra, Emile Durkheim, 116.

  3. 3.

    Emile Durkheim, L’Année Sociologique, 1 (1987), 1–70.

  4. 4.

    Victor Brandford, ‘Durkheim: A Brief Memoir’, The Sociological Review, 10(2) (1918), 77–82.

  5. 5.

    Brandford, Durkheim: A Brief Memoir, 79.

  6. 6.

    For a complete list of contributors to the 12 volumes of The Anne Sociologique, see Steven Lukes, Emile Durkheim, His Life and Work; A Historical and Critical Study, (Stanford, 1972), 615–16.

  7. 7.

    Lukes, Emile Durkheim, His Life and Work, (1972).

  8. 8.

    Durkheim, E. (1912/1954). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. (J. Swain, Trans.) New York: The Free Press.

  9. 9.

    Emile Durkheim, Division of Labour in Society, (New York, 1933), 32.

  10. 10.

    Steven Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His life, (Stanford, 1973).

  11. 11.

    Dietrich Rueschemeye, ‘On Durkheim’s Explanation of Division of Labor,’ American Journal of Sociology 88(2) (1982).

  12. 12.

    Robert K Merton, ‘Durkheim’s Division of Labour in Society,’ American Journal of Sociology, 40 (1934), 328.

  13. 13.

    Edward A Tiryakian, Revisiting Sociology’s First Classic: The Division of Labour in Society and its Actuality, Sociological Forum, (1994), 4.

  14. 14.

    Mike Gane, A Fresh look at Durkheim’s Sociological Method, (London, 1994).

  15. 15.

    Emile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, (London, 1988), 128.

  16. 16.

    LeCarpa, Emile Durkheim, 144.

  17. 17.

    An early critique of the EF was offered by A. A. Goldenweiser The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods. Lukes 1972 and Pickering 1984; Bloor 1984 – in defence of Durkheim. For a more recent review of EF see Ken Morrison’s piece in Social Forces 82.1 (2003) 399–404, Vol. 14, No. 5 (1 March 1917), pp. 113–124.

  18. 18.

    Durkheim, TEF, 1912, p. 322.

  19. 19.

    Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 2002.

  20. 20.

    Durkheim, TEF, 1912, p. 62.

  21. 21.

    Emile Durkheim, Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, Ed. Anthony Giddens (Cambridge, 1972), 55.

  22. 22.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 63–64 & 71.

  23. 23.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 135.

  24. 24.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 159.

  25. 25.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 52.

  26. 26.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 69.

  27. 27.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 35.

  28. 28.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 35–36.

  29. 29.

    The Rules triggered criticisms and Durkheim responded to them ‘The role of General Sociology’ (1905). For recent critics see Ronald Fernandez, Mappers of Society: The lives, times and legacies of Great Sociologists, (Westport: 2003), 49–52; Stephen Turner, ‘Durkheim’s The Rules of Sociological Method: Is it a Classic? Sociological Perspectives 38 (2), (1995); Kenneth Thompson, Emile Durkheim, (New York: Tavistock, 1982), 101.

  30. 30.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 81.

  31. 31.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 36.

  32. 32.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 31.

  33. 33.

    Durkheim, The Rules, 36.

  34. 34.

    Paul Hirsch et al, A Durkheimian Approach to Globalization. In P. Adler (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies: Classical Foundations, (New York, 2009).

  35. 35.

    According to Anthony Giddens (1984):

    Functionalist thought, from Comte onwards, has looked particularly towards biology as the science providing the closest and most compatible model for social science. Biology has been taken to provide a guide to conceptualizing the structure and the function of social systems and to analyse processes of evolution via mechanisms of adaptation…functionalism strongly emphasises the pre-eminence of the social world over its individual parts (i.e. its constituent actors, human subjects).

  36. 36.

    Tiryakian, Revisiting Sociology’s First Classic.

  37. 37.

    J. Harms, Reason and Social Change in Durkheim’s Thought: The Changing Relationship between Individual and Society, Pacific Sociological Review, 24 (4) (1981).

  38. 38.

    T Parsons, The Structure of Social Action (Vol. III). Glencoe, 1937).

  39. 39.

    Steven Lukes, Alienation and Anomie. In P. Hamilton (Ed.), Emile Durkheim: Critical Assessments, Vol. II (London, 1990).

  40. 40.

    Mestrovic’s Anomie and the Unleashing of the Will:, In Emile Durkheim and the Reformation of Sociology, (New Jersey, 1988).

  41. 41.

    Mestrovic 1987, 567–583.

  42. 42.

    Gerber, John J. Macionis, Linda M. (2010). Sociology (7th Canadian ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada. p. 97.

  43. 43.

    Durkheim, DLS, 368–369.

  44. 44.

    Stephen R. Marks. ‘Durkheim’s Theory of Anomie.’ American Journal of Sociology, 80(2): 329–363, 1974, 329. Durkheim, E. (1925/1961). Moral Education: A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education. (E. Wilson, & H. Schnurer, Trans.) New York: The Free Press.

  45. 45.

    Mestrovic’s, Anomie and the Unleashing of the Will, (1988).

  46. 46.

    Mestrovic, Stjepan. Emile Durkheim and The Reformation of Sociology.

  47. 47.

    Durkheim, DLS, 5.

  48. 48.

    Mestrovic, Anomie, the Unleashing of the Will, 61.

  49. 49.

    Durkheim, DLS, 129.

  50. 50.

    Mestrovic, Anomie, the Unleashing of the Will, 65.

  51. 51.

    Durkheim, Suicide, 248.

  52. 52.

    Durkheim, Suicide, 247.

  53. 53.

    Mestrovic, Anomie, the Unleashing of the Will, 54.

  54. 54.

    Cited in Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim: A Post-post Structuralist Critique, (London: 1993).

  55. 55.

    Cited in Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, 114.

  56. 56.

    Cited in Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, 114.

  57. 57.

    Cited in Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, 114.

  58. 58.

    Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, (1993).

  59. 59.

    Cited in Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, 114.

  60. 60.

    LaCapra, Emile Durkheim, (1972).

  61. 61.

    LaCapra, Emile Durkheim, (1972).

  62. 62.

    Durkheim, Division of Labour, 328.

  63. 63.

    Durkheim, Division of Labour, 339.

  64. 64.

    Durkheim, Division of Labour, 340.

  65. 65.

    Durkheim, Division of Labour, 155.

  66. 66.

    Durkheim, Division of Labour, 338.

  67. 67.

    See Black 1984 for a fuller discussion.

  68. 68.

    See Kaufman-Osborn 1986 and Alpert 1959.

  69. 69.

    Barnes, B. 1995 The Elements of Social Theory. London: UCL Press. Reprinted in 2014 by Princeton University Press. Quoted in Jay J. Coakley, Eric Dunning, Handbook of Sports Studies.

  70. 70.

    LaCapra, Emile Durkheim, 22.

  71. 71.

    Gouldner in the Introduction to the English version of Socialism and Saint-Simon, 1959.

  72. 72.

    Pearce F., The Radical Durkheim, (Canada. 2001).

  73. 73.

    Mestrovic’s, Anomie and the Unleashing, (1988); Tiryakiani, Revisiting Sociology’s First Classic, 1994; Lehmann, Deconstructing Durkheim, (1993); Gane, A Fresh look, (1994); and Pearce, The Radical Durkheim, (2001); Gianfranco, Durkheim, (2000); Godlove, Teaching Durkheim, (2005); Jones, Durkheim Reconsidered, (2001); Lemert, Durkheim’s Ghosts, (2006); Martins, Debating Durkheim, (1984).

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  1. Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Vineeta Sinha

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Sinha, V. (2017). Emile Durkheim (1858–1917). In: Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41134-1_7

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