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A beehive is created by the division
of labor of industrious insects. As well
as producing a functioning whole, the
bees maintain a symbiotic relationship
with the flora of their environment.
The “social fact”—by which he
meant a thing that exists without
being subject to any individual will
upon it—that Durkheim identifies
as driving this evolution from
mechanical to organic solidarity
is the increase in “dynamic
density,” or population growth and
concentration. The competition for
resources becomes more intense,
but with the increased population
density comes the possibility of
greater social interaction within
the population itself, triggering a
division of labor to more efficiently
deal with its demands.
In modern society, the organic
interdependence of individuals is
the basis for social cohesion. But
Durkheim realized that the division
of labor that came with rapid
industrialization also brought
social problems. Precisely because
it is built on the complementary
differences between people,
organic solidarity shifts the
focus from the community to the
individual, replacing the collective
consciousness of a society—the
shared beliefs and values that
provide cohesiveness. Without that
framework of norms of behavior,
people become disoriented and
society unstable. Organic solidarity
can only work if elements of
mechanical solidarity are retained,
and members of society have a
sense of common purpose.
The speed of industrialization,
according to Durkheim, had forced
a division of labor so quickly
on modern society that social
interaction had not developed
sufficiently to become a substitute
for the decreasing collective
consciousness. Individuals felt
increasingly unconnected with
society, and especially the sort of
moral guidance that mechanical
solidarity had previously given
them. Durkheim used the word
anomie to describe this loss of
collective standards and values,
and its consequent sapping of
individual morale. In a study of
patterns of suicide in different
areas, he showed the importance
of anomie in the despair that leads
someone to take their own life.
In communities where collective
beliefs were strong, such as among
Catholics, the suicide rate was
lower than elsewhere, which
confirmed for Durkheim the value of
solidarity to the health of a society.An academic discipline
Durkheim based his ideas on
thorough research of empirical
evidence, such as case studies and
statistics. His major legacy was
the establishment of sociology
as an academic discipline in the
tradition of the positivist doctrine
of Comte—that social science is
subject to the same investigative
methods as the natural sciences.
Durkheim’s positivist approach
was met with skepticism, however.
Sociological thinkers from Marx
onward rejected the idea that
something as complex and
unpredictable as human society isFOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY
consistent with scientific research.
Durkheim also went against the
intellectual mood of the time
by looking at society as a whole
rather than at the experience of
the individual, which was the basis
of the approach adopted by Max
Weber. His concept of “social facts”
with a reality of their own, separate
from the individual, was dismissed,
and his objective approach was
also criticized for explaining the
basis of social order but not making
any suggestions to change it.
But Durkheim’s analysis of
society as composed of different
but interrelated parts, each with
its own particular function, helped
to establish functionalism as an
important approach to sociology,
influencing among others Talcott
Parsons and Robert K. Merton.
Durkheim’s explanations of
solidarity were an alternative to
the theories of Marx and Weber, but
the heyday of functionalism lasted
only until the 1960s. Although
Durkheim’s positivism has since
fallen out of favor, concepts
introduced by him, such as anomie
and collective consciousness (in
the guise of “culture”), continue to
figure in contemporary sociology. ■Society is not a mere sum
of individuals. Rather, the
system formed by their
association represents a
specific reality which has
its own characteristics.
Émile Durkheim