EARLY FUNCTIONALISTS:
EMILE DURKHEIM & TALCOTT PARSONS
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EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)
The Sociology that we know today is as a result
of the works of Emile Durkheim.
 Like Comte, and other academics at the time,
Durkheim was alarmed at the chaos he saw in
society.
 It was important therefore, to scientifically
observe and study this society and the social
dynamics to find out what was going on.
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While Auguste Comte left the field of Sociology into
disrepute, Durkheim attempted to re-establish the
discipline.
 He therefore became the first French academic
Sociologist. It was no easy task.
 Durkheim, like most early Sociologists were all
academic men but were still considered by their
colleagues as intruders representing a discipline
that had little claim to legitimate status.
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He had a lot of work to do in order to make
Sociology a discipline in its own right.
 The very first attempt Durkheim made was to
reduce the micro view of biology & psychology
to explain social phenomena.
 Rather, he decided to look at structures
(institutions, norms & values), which for him
determined mankind’s social problems.
 Thus, Durkheim was also the first to
successfully apply the macro theory of
Sociology.
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Durkheim’s main contributions to Sociology:
 Functionalism
 Mechanical
& Organic Solidarity
 Social
Facts
 Collective Conscience
 Anomie
 Religion
 Suicide
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FUNCTIONALISM
Emile Durkheim is the founding father of
Functionalism.
 Functionalism is a theory in society that
promotes the view that everything is functional,
necessary, positive and beneficial albeit in
small quantities in some cases.
 They believe that parts of society continue to
persist only if they served useful functions.
 If not, they become obsolete.
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COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE
A Collective Conscience is a shared moral code
that shapes individual consciousness.
 Societies need this collective conscience (or
shared morality) in order to function
successfully.
 Durkheim believed that EVERYONE in society
shares some of the same ideas.
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SOLIDARITY
TYPE OF SOLIDARITY
TYPE OF SOCIETY
MECHANICAL
ORGANIC
PRE-MODERN (AGRARIAN)
MODERN (INDUSTRIAL)
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Whereas the rest of the intellectuals and
philosophers
at
the
time
opposed
individualism, Durkheim promoted it.
 In his first book “The Division of Labour in
Society” (1893), Durkheim explored the
sources of order and stability in the modern
world.
 For him, selfish people need one another to
survive.
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Division of Labour is the manner in which
labour is allocated to various people.
 In a traditional society, one person would have
many tasks to do.
 In a modern society, one person would usually
do one task and duties are specialised.
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Mechanical Solidarity – This occurred in the
traditional (agricultural) society.
 In these societies, everyone did similar tasks
and many of the interests in the society would
coincide with each other. We would all need
each other.
 This likeness was important because this
mechanical solidarity (unity) would have led the
society to share a collective conscience (similar
values, goals, norms, ideas and beliefs).
 It was deemed mechanical by Durkheim
because the community functioned together
like a simple machine.
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Now while this may have been a good thing and
this may have held pre-modern societies together,
there would also have been negative implications.
 For example, in pre-industrial Europe, there would
have been many farm lands. These farms would
raise sheep, cows, chickens and grow several
crops (maize & barley). Several people would be
doing the same kind of job and rearing the same
kind of animals and plants. If there was a drought,
then the entire society would result in chaos
because it would bring catastrophe to the entire
group.
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Organic Solidarity – This occurs in the modern
industrial type of society.
 In this type of society, everyone is selfish.
 The
division of labour is distinct and
specialised.
 Everyone is responsible for doing their task and
their task alone.
 They do not interfere in another person’s job.
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The society is more diversified and people are
executing different tasks thus their interests are
different.
 If there is a high crime rate, and party promoters
are negatively affected, security firms may be
positively affected as there is a greater demand for
these companies.
 As the division of labour in society became more
complex, people became more different and so
too did their interests, values, etc.
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So if the collective conscience was no longer
holding society together as much as it used to,
what was?
 Durkheim believed that being different would not
mean an end to group solidarity, rather as people
became more specialized and different, they grew
more dependent on each other.
 Whereas people were held together in traditional
societies by being similar, it was actually
dissimilarity that kept them together in modern
societies.
 Therefore, the solidarity became more fluid and
natural (hence the term organic).
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So no matter how free and individualistic we
wanted to be in modern society, we have no
choice but to maintain social ties as we are
linked to the bigger institutions and structures
in the society.
 In his book “the Division of Labour in Society,”
Durkheim argued that the way that modern
society is divided forces people to interact and
maintain social relationships with one another.
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Durkheim actually was able to make an
important discovery about the relationship
between social solidarity & division of labour
and even identified the key to understanding
things sociologically.
 This notion was to focus not on the
psychological and biological attributes of
individuals but on the nature of society itself
which includes the institutions.
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
Therefore, the main discovery for Durkheim at
this juncture in his research was:
Social phenomena actually do exist!
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SOCIAL FACTS
Durkheim defined Sociology as “the scientific
study of social facts or phenomena.”
 Social facts are those things in society that
transcend or are bigger than individuals.
 Social facts were the domain of Sociology.
 He believed that people were constrained by social
facts: ways of acting, thinking and feeling in a
society.
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Social facts were caused by other social facts (e.g.
the influence of religion on suicide rates) but could
also be explained in terms of the functions they
performed for society.
 Social facts could not be determined by individual
facts or exceptions, rather it is becomes a
scientific fact because there is an observable
trend confirming it as a truth or reality.

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ANOMIE
Modern industrial societies could be disrupted by
the existence of anomie (state of normlessness)
and egoism (where individuals are not integrated
into social groups).
 Both of these stemmed from a complex division of
labour. People did specialised jobs, and this
weakened solidarity in society.
 For Durkheim, too much negativity could bring
instability & disrupt the social order & stability.
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For Durkheim, men were creatures with insatiable wants.
These desires could only be held in check by external
societal controls.
When social regulations break down, the controlling
influence of society on individual propensities is no longer
effective and individuals are left to their own devices.
Such a state of affairs Durkheim calls anomie, a term that
refers to a condition of relative normlessness in a whole
society or in some of its component groups.
Anomie does not refer to a state of mind, but to a property
of the social structure.
It characterizes a condition in which individual desires are
no longer regulated by common norms and where, as a
consequence, individuals are left without moral guidance in
the pursuit of their goals.
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Durkheim believed that total anomie is
impossible.
 For him, anomie usually occurs when there is
drastic social change.
 Rapid social change may create anomie either
in the whole society or in some parts of it (e.g.
Economic Depression).
 Durkheim (like most Functionalists) does not
like social change and if it must occur, he
prefers evolutionary change.
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SUICIDE
Durkheim was most famous for his study on
suicide.
 It was the first sociological study ever
conducted which is why it was so famous.
 Suicide focused on a large amount of statistics
from various sources, thus attempting to prove
to the world that one could scientifically study
the phenomenon of any social issue.
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Some of Durkheim’s assumptions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Suicide exists in ALL societies around the world.
Therefore suicide was “normal” or a regular
occurrence.
He rationed that the reason for high rates of
suicide was not individualistic and blamed
disintegrating forces at work in the social
structure.
Therefore, the rates of suicide could help
determine the reason for suicide.
He argued there were many types of suicide.
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TYPES OF SUICIDE
Emile Durkheim classified different types of suicides on the basis of
different types of relationship between the actor and his society.
1) Egoistic suicide:
According to Durkheim, when a man becomes socially isolated or feels
that he has no place in the society he destroys himself. This is the suicide
of self-centred person who lacks altruistic feelings and is usually cut off
from mainstream of the society.
2) Altruistic suicide:
This type of suicide occurs when individuals and the group are too close
and intimate. This kind of suicide results from the over integration of the
individual into social proof, for example – hari-kari and Hindu wives’
figurative suicide ritual.
3) Anomic suicide:
This type of suicide is due to certain breakdown of social equilibrium,
such as, suicide after bankruptcy or after winning a lottery. In other
words, anomic suicide takes place in a situation which has cropped up
suddenly.
4) Fatalistic suicide:
This type of suicide is due to overregulation in society. Under the
overregulation of a society, when a servant or slave commits suicide,
when a barren woman commits suicide, it is the example of fatalistic
suicide
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Durkheim concluded that:
 Suicide
rates are higher in men than women
(although married women who remained childless
for a number of years ended up with a high suicide
rate).
 Suicide rates are higher for those who are single
than those who are married.
 Suicide rates are higher for people without children
than people with children.
 Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than
Catholics and Jews.
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 Suicide
rates are higher among soldiers than
civilians.
 Suicide rates are higher in times of peace than in
times of war.
 Suicide rates are higher in Scandinavian countries
and Japan.
 The higher the education level, the more likely it
was that an individual would commit suicide;
however Durkheim established that there is more
correlation between an individual's religion and
suicide rate than an individual's education level;
Jewish people were generally highly educated but
had a low suicide rate.
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RELIGION
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For Durkheim, religion had the most important
influence in society.
 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912),
is regarded as one of Durkheim’s best and
most mature works.
 In this case study, Durkheim investigated the
Australian Aborigines.
 His conclusion from this study was that religion
was social which emerge from collective
representations and realities.
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For Durkheim, religion served the following
purposes:
It provided for a meaning of life
 It produced solidarity (especially in societies with
mechanical solidarity and to a lesser extent but still
important to those with organic solidarity)
 It reinforced morals and social norms held collectively
by members of the society
 It gave individuals a sense of belonging
 It provided authority figures for the society
 It provided social control, cohesion and purpose
 It presented a means of communication & gathering of
individuals to reaffirm social norms
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Durkheim’s other main purpose of conducting
his research was to find commonalities of
religions across the world.
 He posited that ALL religions were divided into
the sacred and the profane. Although these
views may have been different, they were
similar in the sense that they both needed each
other in order to survive.
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DURKHEIM’S RELEVANCE TO T&T

Do you think that Durkheim’s contributions are
relevant to understanding contemporary
society in Trinidad and Tobago?
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TALCOTT PARSONS (1902 – 1979)

The American Sociologist’s Contributions to
Sociology:
 Founder
of Structural Functionalism
 Functional Pre-requisites
 Pattern Variables
 Sexual Division of Labour
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STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Parsons believed that all societies needed a value
consensus based upon shared goals.
 Societies developed rules based upon this value
consensus and norms about how people should
behave, which fitted in with overall goals.
 Where individuals are socialized to accept the
values, goals and norms and where this works
smoothly, social equilibrium is achieved.
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FUNCTIONAL PRE-REQUISITES

Parsons saw society as a system with four
basic needs or functional pre-requisites:
 Goal
Attainment
 Adaptation
 Integration
 Latency (Pattern Maintenance)
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Goal Attainment – The Government or political
systems are responsible for setting goals.
Adaptation – The economy is the main institution
concerned with this function.
Integration – Adjustment and conflict in society is
maintained by the legal system or the law.
Latency (Pattern Maintenance) – maintenance of
basic patterns or norms/values in society. Socializers
or institutions responsible for socialization perform
this role. For example – family, education, religion.
Religion was the most important for Parsons.
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FUNCTIONAL PRE-REQUISITES
(BASIC NEEDS)
INSTITUTION(S)
GOAL ATTAINMENT
GOVERNMENT
ADAPTATION
ECONOMY
INTEGRATION
LEGAL SYSTEM
LATENCY (PATTERN
MAINTENANCE)
FAMILY, RELIGION,
EDUCATION
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PATTERN VARIABLES

Pattern Variables – in order to understand how society
changed and evolved over time, Parsons compared
traditional and modern societies by using Pattern
Variables A and Pattern Variables B.
TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
MODERN SOCIETY
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
He saw a shift in the values of people from
Pattern Variables A  Pattern Variables B.
PATTERN VARIABLES A
PATTERN VARIABLES B
(TRADITIONAL)
(MODERN)
Ascription
(STATUS)
Diffuseness
(ROLE)
Particularism
(FAVOUR)
Achievement
Specificity
Universalism
Affectivity
(GRATIFICATION)
Neutrality
Collectiveorientation
(INTERESTS)
Self-orientation
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SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR
Parsons viewed that there was a specific division of
labour (i.e. how people worked and what tasks
people did) based on their sex.
 Males were therefore responsible for executing
particular tasks because it was only natural and in
their biological state that they should do so.
 Females, on the other hand, because of their
fragile state and biological difference, were limited
to a particular set of duties and responsibilities.
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TALCOTT PARSONS’ RELEVANCE TO T&T

Do you think that Parson’s contributions are
more relevant to understanding contemporary
society in Trinidad and Tobago than Durkheim’s
theories?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
McIntyre, Lisa. 2006. The Practical Skeptic: Core
Concepts in Sociology. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Mc
Graw Hill.
 Haralambos, M. & Holborn, M. 2000. Sociology:
Themes and Perspectives. 5th Ed. London: Harper
Collins.
 Cardiff University: School of Social Sciences.
2010. “Introduction to Sociology: Emile Durkheim.”
Accessed
9th
February
2014
http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introso
c/durkheim1.html.
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