Holism
Whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Division of labour
example of empirical indicator, people can become more tied to each other as the division of labour becomes more comple, we need each other to survive.
Mechanical solidarity
- individual is bound almost directly to the society through the conscience collective, which provides a single, powerful, total belief system.
- Includes repressive law; dominates anyone who breaks away from ideals and is a highly intense response from individuals.
Organic solidarity
- Each individual depends on society because he depends upon the parts of which it is composed
- presumes people are different.
- A system of different, special functions which definite relations unite.
- Restitutive law is present; does not involve suffering, but the return of things as they were.
- This society is an advanced division of labour.
Social solidarity
- indicates society predates the individual
- society is greater than the mere sum of its parts and will continue to exist once the individual is gone
Social facts
- exist outside the individual consciousness and are endowed by coercive power.
- group habits, generalized patterns of action
- imposes itself upon social actors independently of their will
- suis generis (self generated, exists before and after you)
Social Control
- the constraining aspects of the social facts.
- subtle to over control that society exerts on individuals
- all social life fundamentally entails social control, human beings are not totally free.
- people’s actions are shaped or influenced by their social location (biography and history)
Egoistic Suicide
- weakly integrated, few social ties.
- religious and marital representations play important role
- feelings of excessive individualism or egoism directly affects propensity
Altruistic Suicide
- Hindu religion, militarism
- too integrated, strong ties, connected to a religious belief system
- when collective representations value the individual less than the social whole, one finds a higher incidence of altruistic society
Anomic suicide
- not integrated, weak social regulation, dramatic changes
- social norms don’t correspond to individual goals
- collective representations of society are broken or changed, leaving people directionless and insecure, in a state of anomie
Anomie
normlessness, absence of strong collective representation, breakdown of social norms and values
Conscience collective
- external (suis generis)
- comes into existence through all individuals thinking, judging and acting, enormously encompassing
- the individual and society are brought together in social action
- foundation for two types of law: repressive and restitutive
- empirical indicator for the abstract notion of social solidarity
Collective Representations
- way in which the group conceives of itself in relation to objects which affect it
- different sources that present acceptable behaviour
- dominates socially accepted behaviours, attitudes and beliefs
Concentric circles
everyone is located in concentric circles, each representing systems of social control
Positive sciences
observational, empirical indicators, measurable, falsification
Socialization
- becoming part of a social group, imposing ways of seeing
- opposite of individuation
Durkheim and Weber
- both interested in transition to market based economy and in what values will prevail
- Weber looks at frames of mind, Durkheim looks at the sets of groups we are born into (collective representation)
- Durkheim believes society pre dates us (suis generis) where Weber believes societies are a product of the people.
- Durkheim emphasizes the natural science method where Weber believes in the systematic study of spirit and mind, a more interpretive meaning.
