Durkheim’s Team

Abstract

This chapter examines the research team of sociologists that, beginning in 1896, collaborated with Émile Durkheim to create the journal L’Année sociologique. It explores the central place that Durkheim held in the group, as well as the vital roles that different collaborators such as Célestin Bouglé and Marcel Mauss played in making L’Année sociologique an initial success. The chapter then follows the development of this Durkheimian school and its historical legacy after Durkheim’s death in 1917. This development includes the Durkheimian school’s maintenance of a prominent position in the 1920s and 1930s, its relative post–World War II obscurity, and its rebirth beginning in the 1970s and 1980s through renewed academic interest in the work of members of the team. Beyond L’Année sociologique, special attention is given to specific members of Durkheim’s team, including collaborators such as Henri Hubert, François Simiand, Maurice Halbwachs, and Robert Hertz.