What Held Societies and Social Groups Together

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Recommended: Emile Durkheim’s Theory strengths and weaknesses

Durkheim was a social theorist whose main concern was the basis of integration and solidarity in human societies. Initially, his focus was society as a whole, later he brought his attention to examining rituals and interactions of people in face-to-face contact. Durkheim’s main concern was to analyze how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era, when things such as shared religious and ethnic background could no longer be assumed. In response to this concern, he wrote greatly about the effects of laws, religion, education and similar forces on society and social integration. He didn’t understand how individuals could feel tied to each other in an increasingly individualistic society. Durkheim wanted to explain what held societies and social groups together and how it was done.
Durkheim used a number of concepts in order to explain what held societies and social groups together. The first concept he used was social facts. This concept is defined as “the conditions and circumstances external to the individual that, nevertheless, determine one’s course of action.” Durkheim argued that social facts can be determined by collective data such as suicide. “Social solidarity, or the cohesion of social groups,” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) was another concept and issue Durkheim used and focused on in his studies. He felt that without some form of solidarity and moral cohesion, society could not exist. Durkheim broke solidarity down into two forms, organic and mechanical. Organic solidarity is defined as “solidarity that is typified by feelings of likeness.” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) Mechanical solidarity is defined as “solidarity that is a function of interdependence.” (Appelrouth and Edles 2012) Mechan...

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...iew because it shows how much power the government or any other hierarchy has on society. It shows me how society is a controlled environment.

Works Cited

Appelrouth, Scott, and Laura Desfor. Edles. Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text and Readings. Thousand Oaks, CA [etc.: SAGE/Pine Forge, 2012. Print.
Belony, S. A. (2011). A Reflection on Equity and Social Justice in Contemporary Educational Practice. Retrieved from http://sambelony.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/a-reflection-on-equity-and-social-justice-in-contemporary-educational-practice1.pdf
Durkheim, E., & Simpson, G. (1997). Suicide: A study in sociology. New York: Free Press.
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Durkheim, Émile . N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013
Kelly, D. H., & Clarke, E. J. (2002). Deviant behavior: A text-reader in the sociology of deviance. New York: Worth Publishers.

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