Émile Durkheim

Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) was a French sociologist who helped establish sociology as an academic discipline through studies of social order, religion, and suicide.

Social fact: A way of acting, thinking, or feeling external to individuals and exerting constraint over them. Durkheim treated social facts as sociology’s proper objects of study.
The Division of Labor in Society: Durkheim’s 1893 book explaining changing forms of social cohesion through the division of labor. It develops his account of solidarity as societies become more specialized.
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Durkheim’s 1912 study of religion that analyzes Australian Aboriginal totemism and sacred life. It applies his sociology to religion’s role in creating shared moral worlds.
Marcel Mauss: A French sociologist and anthropologist whose work on exchange and social institutions extended Durkheimian ideas. Mauss was Durkheim’s nephew and a close intellectual collaborator.
Max Weber: A German sociologist who emphasized meaningful social action, interpretation, and historical comparison. Weber’s interpretive approach contrasts with Durkheim’s emphasis on social facts and external causes.
Collective conscience: The shared beliefs and moral attitudes that bind members of a society. Durkheim used this idea to explain how common norms sustain social order.
Suicide: A Study in Sociology: Durkheim’s 1897 study explaining variation in suicide rates through social integration and regulation. It demonstrates his claim that apparently individual acts can have social causes.
Totemism: A system of social and religious identification organized around a totem, often an animal or plant. Durkheim analyzed totemism as a setting where society represents and worships itself.
Célestin Bouglé: A French sociologist who helped develop and institutionalize sociology in France. Bouglé worked within the intellectual network around Durkheim’s sociological project.
Karl Marx: A German philosopher and critic of capitalism who analyzed class conflict and historical change. Marx foregrounded class struggle, while Durkheim emphasized cohesion and moral regulation.

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