The division of labor in society?

Question

What were the different types of societies durkheim was trying to describe? I read and re-read this article and i just dont understand which different societies he was talking about and or what he was arguing... can someone please help! thanks

Answer 1

I don't know which article you are referring to, but he is probably talking about pre-industrial and industrial societies. Industrialization led to the division of labor, and caused the shift from mechanical to organic solidarity.

Answer 2

Without the article it will be just a guess however Durkheim believed that primitive societies are held together by certain common beliefs ( religion collective conscience), whilst modern societies derive their bonds from the interdependence created by the division of labor. I think he was talking about what bind individual to each other to form a society.and in pre industrial time when most people were self sufficient a common belief would create those links. Since industrialisation we depend on a myriad of people for example think about your computer and how many people contributed to make it from start to your desk this is interdependence.

Answer 3

In a nutshell, the division of labor can be described in this way:

First, according to Durkheim, there was primitive society in which everyone was pretty much the same. They all held common beliefs, value systems, and were fairly versatile in the work they could do. This was because work was not specialized and you could teach just about anyone to perform one of the simple tasks in such a community (farming, wood-working, etc). Because individuals in this society were so similar and because no particular individuals were essential, this loose organization was called "mechanical solidarity".

As society advances, several things begin to happen. People begin to move to urban areas (and population gets denser), society becomes more complex (and diverse), and labor in society becomes "divided". According to Durkheim, in a highly diverse and highly dense community, people don't share the same views and as complexity increases, workers must become specialized in their jobs. Labor, in this way, becomes divided because it becomes more difficult to switch between jobs (due to education, training, etc) and people in general become more dependent on those to perform those jobs (think how important--and different--doctors and electricians are). As we become more specialized and more diverse, we achieve what Durkheim called "organic solidarity". Consider the organs of the body--this was the metaphor that Durkheim himself used. In this way, each organ is specialized and works on its own but without the other organs (and the body as a whole) it ceases to be. In this way, a society with organic solidarity needs all the parts in order to function.

Durkheim would go on to discuss the differences in laws, rationality, etc in mechanical and organic societies. This is an outline of his idea--I hope that it helps!

Answer 4

Durkheim was a twit. You are not the first person to have trouble understanding him. It could be worse. You could be me, I understood him from the first; for the banal hack he was.

PS Clifford Geertz is his direct decedent and just as deluded.

Answer 5

which article are you referring to?