A Critical Account of Durkheim's Concept of Organic Solidarity

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1 Humanities Johannes Lenhard A Critical Account of Durkheim's Concept of Organic Solidarity Essay

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3 London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Sociology SO426: Classical Social Thought Essay For Durkheim, the decline of mechanical solidarity in modern societies is deeply worrying. Provide a critical assessment of Durkheim s account of organic solidarity in a contractual society. Name: Johannes Lenhard Term: Michaelmas 2011 Date of submission: November 2 nd Word count: = 2735

4 1 Durkheim followed one central question during his writings, namely the search for the bonds which unite men one with another (Durkheim, 1888: 257). Especially Durkheim s early works are concerned in this respect with the forms of solidarité that are specific for pre-industrial or lower societies in contrast to the ongoing industrialised or organised kind of community. In the Division of Labour, Durkheim arrives at a rather pessimistic account of modern, industrial society: although under normal circumstances the division of labour leads to a harmonious society bound together by solidarity, our current form of industrial organisation is in an appaling crisis (ibd.: 339) composed of organs that still clash discordantly together (ibd.: 340). It is this account Durkheim gives of solidarity in the modern society that can be criticised substantially. The following essay will therefore consist of an analysis of his line of thought that leads him from early societies bound together by what he calls mechanical solidarity based on similarities, to the notion of organic solidarity in the contractual society. Especially his optimistic, evolutionary account of the development of solidarity, his use of empirical data and finally his idealised notion of society are possible points of doubt as will be shown. The concluding remarks will lift Durkheim s analysis from the early 20 th Century to a contemporary account trying to extend it with Foucault s penal society. Durkheim develops his theory of the division of labour and its influence in the industrial society as a comparison between the modern forms of association with the lower, preindustrial society. In this respect, he builds on earlier thinkers, especially Comte, Spencer and Tönnies, but simultaneously develops contrasting theses. For Durkheim, a different form of solidarity is responsible for the occurrence of social bonds in each societal form respectively. Before it is possible to assess his negative notion of the industrial society, it is therefore essential to understand the concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity respectively. The following paragraph will provide a brief overview of Durkheim s line of thought concerning the development of organic solidarity. Lower societies, such as Waitz Naturvölker but also Romans or early Jews, are bound together by mechanical solidarity (Durkheim, 1984: 61,84), a solidarity sui generis which, deriving from resemblances, binds the individual directly to society (ibd.: 61).

5 2 This solidarity finds its equivalent in every member of the respective society in a strong collective or common consciousness (ibd.: 39), which is in turn made up of the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society (ibd.: 38). This conscience collective ou communé is the source of cohesion in the premodern society: when the collective sentiments, the collective history is strong, the solidarity based on similarity is at its maximum people are bound directly to society. In this instance, the individual consciousness is not developed - individuality is zero (ibd.: 84). Every member in society shares the same set of beliefs. 1 When society in its organisational forms is organised differently, however, the form of solidarity is as well. As Durkheim (ibd.: 85) argues, each one of us depends more intimately upon society the more labour is divided up. Society is held together by interdependencies and professional groups replace the former segmentary organisation. With a growing division of labour 2, society becomes a system of different organs [ ] co-ordinated and subordinated to one another (ibd.: 132). Exchange becomes the normal form of interaction and with it the contract as the symbol of exchange (ibd.: 80; 150). The division of labour produces a contractual society where the bond between the units is the strong, direct bond and the bond between each individual and society is indirect (ibd.: 83ff; Alpert, 1961: 182). In the same way as the individual becomes more specialised, the conscience collective becomes weaker (Durkheim, 1984: 106, 117): the individual [ ] feels [ ] much less acted upon; he becomes more a source of spontaneous activity (ibd.: 120). In effect, social solidarity is tending to become exclusively organic (ibd.: 123, 85), solely a result of the strong interdependencies resulting from the division of labour. Nevertheless, both kinds of solidarity co-exist even in industrial societies, the conscience collective is still part of each individual and with it also mechanical solidarity organic solidarity and the individual consciousness are more substantial, however. Summing up Durkheim s argument, one might conclude, that although deeply routed in their specific kind of society, both kinds of solidarity lead to a harmonious interplay. 1 Belief might here be understood not only in the general, but also indeed in the religious sense. The content of the conscience collective in pre-modern societies is often defined by religion (ibd.: 130). It should be noted that Durkheim (1912/2001) dedicated a whole work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life to analyse the role religion plays in the conscience collective. Within this analysis, no further emphasize will be placed upon the content of the common sentiments, however. 2 Durkheim understands division of labour not only in the industrial or commercial sense of the word. For him, also in the family as well as in other segments of everyday life (e.g. administration) an increasing division of labour takes place (ibd.: 78ff). It can thus be seen as a universal phenomenon.