{"title":"Durkheim’s Ambivalence toward Art","authors":"E. Tiryakian, J. C. Tiryakian","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.19","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines Durkheim’s perspectives on art at the intersection of his sociological commitment to develop sociology as a science and his political and personal imperative to promote social solidarity. It traces Durkheim’s views on art from his early career at Bordeaux to his “cultural turn” in Paris, manifested in The Elementary Forms, exploring the cultural life of Australian “primitives.” Before this turn, Durkheim had discussed art’s contributions to society: as a facilitator for teaching morality and as leisure and recreation. But it is while reading about tribal sacred rituals that he discovered art and religion’s powerful role in enhancing solidarity and group identity. What has been termed ambivalence toward art morphs into a more comprehensive and appreciative perspective, which Durkheim described as fundamentally linked to religion: art in the service of religion and society. Additionally, the chapter explores transgressive approaches to Durkheim’s views on art, as well as contemporary authors who have probed Durkheim’s perspectives on art.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126350917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim, Pragmatism, and Sociology","authors":"Romain Pudal","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.12","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter is devoted to Durkheim’s critical reading of pragmatism mainly in his one-year course in 1913–1914. In spite of the similarities that exist, according to Durkheim, between sociology and pragmatism, he develops a series of theoretical objections against this philosophy, especially concerning the concept of truth. This chapter examines these objections and discusses their political and ideological context, because Durkheim’s positions can also be understood in the context of a French appropriation of pragmatism that is strongly marked by irrationalism. Indeed, pragmatism had a real success in France at the turn of the twentieth century, but more on the side of the spiritualist philosophers in the tradition of Bergson. It was most often used as a kind of intellectual weapon against the dominant rationalism of the French university of the time, of which Durkheim was a prominent figure.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130287710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflecting on Durkheim and His Studies on Law through Cancellation of British Citizenship","authors":"Devyani Prabhat","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.17","url":null,"abstract":"Through an analysis of cancellation of citizenship laws in the United Kingdom, this chapter evaluates Durkheim’s writings on law and its links to moral evolution. It argues that Durkheim’s studies on law are complex and offer rich insights for contemporary sociolegal research. His methodological approaches are also ones that map onto modern-day sociolegal (“law and society” or “law in context”) research. However, Durkheim is overoptimistic in his view that, with time, a modern morality has emerged which venerates the sanctity of the Individual.2 In nationality deprivation cases, analysis reveals the breakdown of social solidarity and the failure to protect people from statelessness. It appears that organic solidarity of the kind that supports human rights is not always a matter of seamless moral and legal progression, contrary to Durkheim’s views.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"8 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132870634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim and Economic Sociology","authors":"P. Steiner","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.15","url":null,"abstract":"Durkheim’s doctoral dissertation on the division of labor had an economic dimension, and his study on suicide rates put a strong emphasis on the professional group for the social reform he had in mind. Durkheim never entered into the technicalities of economic theory proper and limited himself to issues related to economic policy and economic reform, before he moved to study religious issues. Durkheim produced not only a personal work but also a collective one around L’Année sociologique. So, beyond Durkheim’s own achievement, this chapter considers the work of François Simiand and Maurice Halbwachs, who were at the head of the “economic sociology” section of L’Année sociologique, and Marcel Mauss for his work on gift-giving. Finally, the strength of the Durkheimian approach to economic sociology is illustrated through some contemporary inquiries.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121241309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Defense of Collective Consciousness","authors":"Francesco Callegaro","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.5","url":null,"abstract":"Within the repertoire of concepts that Emile Durkheim has forged to introduce sociology, none has attracted as much criticism or provoked more controversy as “collective consciousness”. This key concept has been accused of being at the same time absurd, inadequate, and dangerous. Having clarified to what extent the issue at stake concerns the social philosophy underlying sociology, the article reconstructs Durkheim’s perspective, in order to assess his central thesis: that there is no collective or social life without a collective or social consciousness. First, it clarifies the meaning of the “collective”, by analyzing the criteria of “constraint”: it thus brings out Durkheim’s reference to those obligations that give access to an irreducible collective being. Second, it elucidates the nature of “collective representations”, by examining Durkheim’s criticism of “consciousness”: it thus explains how the “representations” making up the collective are embedded into the dispositional “unconscious” of acting subjects. Finally, it analyzes the nature of “reflexive consciousness”, by reference to those practical situations that trigger a dynamic process allowing the members of a group to make collective representations explicit. The paper concludes by reassessing Durkheim’s argument: the concept of collective consciousness has a definite sociological meaning insofar as it allows us to grasp those crucial effervescent social phenomena that produce a conscious collective being, made of subjects able to say “we” in knowledge of the cause.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133642769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim’s Team","authors":"Marcel Fournier, Paul Carls","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.10","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116943570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim and the Sociality of Space","authors":"Markus Schroer","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.22","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the topic of space in Émile Durkheim’s writings. It shows that spatial formations play a key role in his theory of modernity. He assigns to social morphology the task of systematically investigating the material substratum of societies. Of major concern in this regard is how different types of societies relate to space in distinctive ways. His sociological approach encompasses both an epistemological and a social-theoretic perspective on “space.” In effect, it can be argued that Durkheim is not primarily concerned with a society’s dependence on space, but rather with how space is shaped socially. Space is not an abstract category of thought, but the collectively produced foundation for all social activity. Contrary to many subsequent conceptions of space, Durkheim does not differentiate between physical and social space, arguing that physical space is inherently shaped by social practices of classification and division. It is this theoretical notion which, in light of the renewed attention given to materiality and space by proponents of the material and the spatial turn, makes his work seem surprisingly contemporary.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"108 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131619745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim and the Philosophy of His Time","authors":"Jean-Louis Fabiani","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.9","url":null,"abstract":"Durkheim was trained as a philosopher, taught philosophy, and never left the philosophical field. He started his career with standard philosophical equipment but also with a growing disenchantment about the eclectic and metaphysical mainstream that had survived the establishment of the Third Republic. Philosophy was too general to deal with the growth of scientific invention. Durkheim pursued simultaneously two goals: first, he established a firm demarcation line between philosophy and sociology, guaranteeing the full autonomy of the latter. Second, he benefited from his full membership in the philosophical institution. Rationalism remained his lifetime affiliation. It was largely based on a French version of neo-Kantianism. In the last part of his life, he engaged in a strong discussion with American pragmatism, as a way of clarifying his grasp of social practice.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126874646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lévi-Strauss’s Critique of Durkheim","authors":"Jing Xie","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.26","url":null,"abstract":"Lévi-Strauss’s critique of Durkheim is considered an important one for two reasons. First, it is a discussion about the nature of social reality, and it therefore raises questions about the philosophical foundations of Durkheimian sociology. Second, it is regarded as a turning point in the French tradition of social anthropology, Lévi-Strauss’s purpose being to put forward structuralism as a solution to Durkheimian difficulties. In this chapter, first I outline Lévi-Strauss’s core arguments, and then I reassess the significance of his critique in light of the recent debates about his structuralist program in France. I will show that the orthodox view on the relation between the Durkheim school and Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism is oversimplified because it relies heavily on Lévi-Strauss’s own claims, and as a consequence, also oversimplifies Durkheim’s account of social reality. By examining concepts such as “symbolism,” “obligation,” “institution,” “norm,” and “action” in both Durkheim’s and Lévi-Strauss’s theory, I will show that Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist turn is in fact a cognitivist one, which, instead of offering solutions to Durkheimian questions, dismisses those questions.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130016515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Durkheim and the New Sociology of Morality","authors":"S. Lukes","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190679354.013.30","url":null,"abstract":"Durkheim’s writings on morality are examined, distinguishing his earlier, more familiar account from later developments that advance new ideas relevant to present-day debates. The question is raised of the extent to which familiar criticisms of Durkheim’s sociology of morality are justified and ways are suggested in which sociologists and anthropologists can gain from reconsidering Durkheim on morality. His attempts to demarcate the scope of the sociology of morals against the claims of the philosophers and psychologists of his time are, it is argued, relevant to how sociologists of morality should view today’s philosophers and psychologists. Durkheim’s influence on current work by sociologists of morality is considered: positive influence, whether acknowledged or not, and negative, in response to what are seen as inadequacies of Durkheim’s approach. It is suggested that apparently non-Durkheimian studies of trust, collective action, and the evolution of social norms are nonetheless Durkheimian in their object of inquiry.","PeriodicalId":355110,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Émile Durkheim","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115457904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}