Abstract
This paper will explore the life of Emile Durkheim. It will start by giving a brief overview of his life leading up to his work as a sociologist. It will then highlight his main theories and go into detail about his work and how it contributes to the study of sociology and the development of sociological theory. It will then provide an application of his theory and conclude with a summary of findings. The purpose for this report is to discover how Emile Durkheim’s work helps us in the field of sociology and why it is still relevant today.
The Life of Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim was born on the 15th April 1858 in Epinal, France, and died on November the 15th 1917 (Jones, 1986). Durkheim came from a family of French Jews. Durkheim’s father, his grandfather, and great-grandfather were all Jewish rabbis. So from birth, there was an expectation that Durkheim would too grow up and become a rabbi. He began his education much like his father before him, at a rabbinical school.
However, during his childhood, Durkheim became disillusioned with the idea of becoming a rabbi. So he switched schools and decided to study religion from a more agnostic point of view rather than Jewish. This was a pivotal moment in Durkheim’s life as he completely broke away from Judaism, though he still remained close with his Jewish family.
During his education, Durkheim explored many subjects such as, humanities, psychology, ethics, and philosophy. He graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1882. He had strong views, and this meant that he was not hired at high-level schools. Instead, he taught at several provincial schools, until he moved to Germany in 1885. It was in Germany where Durkheim began two years of study in sociology.
Sociology proved to be Durkheim’s strength, and became successful, publishing several papers, and articles. His publications gained him notoriety and was awarded a top-level teaching position in 1887, in Bordeaux, France. From there, Durkheim introduced social science into the school curriculum, and soon after published his first work, “The Division of Labour in Society, in 1893” (Jones, 1986).
Today Durkheim is known as the “Father of Sociology”, and credited with introducing sociology into the school curriculum and making it a science” (Jones, 1986).
Emile Durkheim is important to the field of sociology and to the development of sociological theory partly because, he is said to have contributed to the “sociological analysis of history” (Emirbayer, 1996). His work largely focused on socio-structural factors that inevitably lead to mankind’s social problems, i.e. social facts (Thompson, 2002).
Social facts are, cultural norms, values, and social structures that originates within society and affects how people behave within society (ibid). Durkheim theorized that social facts are things that people do because society has influenced them to do it.
Moreover, social facts are outside of us, they are characteristics of the influence of society and structures upon people, thus they are not conscious acts but are limiting actions that produce pressure upon individuals because they are the accepted dominant behaviour within a society.
Some examples of social facts include, laws, beliefs, gender roles, institutions, and statuses within society (ibid). Furthermore, Durkheim contributed to, and further developed social structures within structural- functional theory, or better known as structural functionalism. Within structural functionalism, Durkheim developed ideas around the sociology of religion, deviance, and suicide.
Durkheim’s work around deviance helps explain the root causes of deviance, and who is likely to display deviant behaviour, and why. His work also helps us understand how to solve the problems of deviance. Deviance in society is thought to be something that is bad.
However, Durkheim theorized that deviance is neither good or bad. Although crime and murder are not good things, Durkheim looked at deviance as a whole. He found that deviance in necessary in society, because it helps us know whether or not our rules and regulations are indeed working, or if they are actually failing.
In addition to this, Durkheim’s work helps us understand if deviance is an individual, or a societal issue, and explores the levels and depths of deviance. Moreover, Durkheim’s work around deviance helps explain possible methods for solving the problem, and gives us new ways of viewing the problem. It helps us investigate deviance and determine whether or not various forms of deviance should be punished, and how they should be punished within our society.
Overall, Durkheim works stated that the problems in society were not excluded or separated from society. He stated that the problems in society like crime and suicide were not individual’s problems at all. In fact, he theorized that the problems in society were merely symptoms of a societal structure, and reflected the expectations that put pressure upon people within in. He viewed these problems from a holistic perspective, and took into account the individuals personal circumstances, and societies pressure that lead to deviance, or suicide (Thompson, 2002).
A modern day example of Durkheim’s theory in motion is when we look at the roots behind deviance. For example, in Western society it is expected that when you go to a shopping mall you will be dressed appropriately. It is also expected when you go to church, you’ll display respectful behaviour. It’s expected when you go to a funeral, that you are quiet and sombre, or when you visit a library, you are dressed appropriately and are quiet.
Furthermore, it is expected that every good citizen will get a job, pay their bills, and adhere to the rules in society. I.e. no swearing to police, or in public places of worship, no speeding, no spitting on the sidewalks, no drinking in the street in the middle of the day, and no skateboarding on public sidewalks. When these rules, or “social norms” are broken, the individual is labelled by society as deviant (Jones, 1986).
Deviant behaviour can range from serious acts like murder, and sexual assault, theft, violence, or less serious acts like riding a skateboard on the sidewalk, wearing a bikini at the mall, swearing in church, having too many tattoo’s or piercings, and generally displaying behaviour that is deemed taboo. When societies expectations of behaviour are not adhered to there is often a form of punishment involved.
When serious violation from the social norm is transgressed, this can create moral panic. Moral panic is a media-fuelled – wide spread fear that society is breaking down, and something must be done about it, i.e. changing laws, harsher penalties, further labelling of individuals who are classed as deviant (Jones, 1986).
Durkheim theorized that in this context, crime is a normal part of society, because it helps re-affirm the established rule of law (ibid). When deviant behaver is punished it helps us understand how our laws are working, whether they are effective, and helps us find comfort in them when they are deemed effective at stopping a murderer for example.
Durkheim’s work helps us understand who we are in the larger context of society, and how it functions, and how we function within it. Armed with this new perspective we can then go about solving problems within society, and understanding more about where we are, where we come from, and what is happening and why. Durkheim never saw deviance as a issue that should be completely irradiated, because without deviance we have no means of testing whether our laws actually work or not.
Overall, the study of deviance in society from a sociological perspective is interesting and offers new insights into the human condition. Not all sociologists agree with Durkheim’s point of view or functionalism as a whole.
However, that is what makes it a more interesting subject to explore. Durkheim was passionate about his work and dedicated considerable time and effort into it. He is important to sociology because he was so knowledge about functionalism and we can take the foundation he set for us and expand on it from a modern day perspective. That is why succinctly, Durkheim is important to the study of sociology.
Conclusion
Emile Durkheim came from a well-established Jewish family. Despite his family’s expectations, Durkheim turned away from Judaism and the expectation of becoming a rabbi, and turned his attention to the study of religion, philosophy, ethics, psychology, and eventually sociology.
Sociology proved to be Durkheim’s strength and he helped social structures within structural-functionalism. He produced work related to deviance, suicide and religion.
Durkheim wanted to help explain the problems in society on a holistic level, and saw the problems in society as societal issues, not just individual problems. He noted that societies pressure upon individuals resulted in patterns of behavior that were considered as social norms.
When these social norms are broken Durkheim stated that the result is the labelling of individuals as deviant, which can result in moral panic, public outrage and punishment. He theorized that deviance and crime is normal because it helps re-affirm our established rule of law.
Today Durkheim is known as the “father of sociology”. In addition to his works on social theory, he brought sociology into the school curriculum and transformed it into a science. Durkheim is important to the study of sociology and his works are important to us today because they help us understand ourselves and our place in society.
His work helps us understand that society’s problems are often created by societies expectations. He helps us understand how society functions and how we can solve problems by looking at the bigger picture.
References
Emirbayer, M. (1996). Durkheim's contribution to the sociological analysis of history. Sociol Forum, 11(2), 263-284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02408367
Jones, R. (1986). Emile Durkheim: an introduction to four major works (pp. 12-23). Beverly Hills (CA) [etc.]: Sage.
Thompson, K. (2002). Emile Durkheim. New York: Routledge.
