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Durkheim's Theory of Division of Labor

The purpose of this research is to examine Emile Durkheim's theory of the division of labor in society and its application to an observation of realworld societies in the modern period. The plan of the research will be to set forth the major aspects of the theory and show how he develops it. Specific applications of the theory will also be discussed, particularly with reference to its relevance to the questions confronting contemporary society. In this regard, the scope and limit of the relevance of Durkheim's theory to current social realities will be examined.

Durkheim's overriding purpose in his writing appears to have been to describe and analyze contemporary society in terms of social science. That is, he sought to apply the scientific method to the task of examining the form, function, and substance of contemporary society, which for Durkheim would have been the Western society of the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The result of his efforts in regard to the division of labor in society was the creation of a theory that would explain the source, evolution, framework, and content of a morally ordered society. In turn, these efforts contributed much to the emergence of social science in general and sociology in particular as a distinct intellectual discipline.

Durkheim views society as the sum total of various forces interacting within it and for this reason the society that Durkheim envisions has been referred to as organic in nature. To the extent the society is a separate entity with a life of its own, independent of subsidiary elements existing within it the result is the formation of a social collective, of which individual elements within the collective are to one degree or another representative. The effect of this, as expressed in the society as such, is the creation of a social or collective consciousness. This is the essence of a society which supersedes the individual consciousness of particular ...

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Durkheim's Theory of Division of Labor. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:46, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700872.html