Durkheim functionalism-anomie

2. Sociology: A Distinct Science
Avoid reductionism – do not anthropomorphize
Society behaves as at a level that transcends the
individual.

3. Durkheim and Functionalism
Society is a stable system.
Balance
Equilibrium
All parts work together to promote stability and order

4. Coined the
term :"social fact,”
and said we
should explain
social facts by
social facts, not
by psychological
or biological facts.

6. Trees & Forest Analogy
Atomistic verus Sociologic
•Problems and Issues
•A different research perspective – a
different organism

7. Suicide
•Suicide is not an act that is easily studied by
asking individuals –– those who are
successful at it tend to be dead, while those
who attempt it unsuccessfully do so perhaps
as a cry for help, and may not lead us to
understanding those who are successful.
•He looked at rates of suicide, and saw they
varied by country, religion, gender, marital
status, and religious affiliation, but that the
rates stayed consistent for each category.

8. TED
http://www.ted.com/talks/
hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

9. Football game metaphor
organic solidarity
•Individual – plays to win in his role wide
receiver –tackle, punter
•Players
•Fans bench
•Rules
•Penalties
•Organic solidarity
•Anomie
•Team – League – Nation

10. All Science is Informed by Theory
• Functionalism:
•Macro
•Equilibrium
•Stability
•Order
•
•Emile Durkheim (1858-1917):

11. Normal Society?
Critical elements of moral order:
The Social Bond
•Normative structure
(regulatory function)
•Integrative function (relation
between individual and the
group)

12. Functionalism
Essence of a society==>
Moral order==>
"Collective Consciousness"
Social currents push people in different directions,
helping determine patterning of behavior.

13. Durkheim and Organic Solidarity

14. Societal “Anomie”
•Breakdown of normative structure,
rules/norms weak, unclear, indistinct.
•No "guidance" for the individual, no
limitations. Society lacks the regulatory
constraints necessary to control the
behavior of its members.
•A product of change, rapid, uncontrolled,
and unpredictable.
•Unleashes the "essence" of the individual--
passion for unlimited growth, greed,
unquenchable thirst--which can only be
contained within the boundaries of a stable
social system.
•Without boundaries, limits, norms,
individual life (Self and Other's) becomes
meaningless-behavior becomes
uncontrollable==>Deviance

15. http://vimeo.com/26492955
Suicide

16. His findings.

17. Durkheim: Pathological and Normal Societies
Crime as Normal and Necessary
Functions of Deviance
–Boundary
Maintenance
–Group Solidarity
–Innovation
–Tension Reduction
•Dysfunctions of
Deviance: Anomie

18. Functionalism
•Norms as necessary, Deviance as functional. Dispels notion
of pathology.
•Focus on the consequences of behavioral patterns.
•NEEDS of the system. (Understand behavior by relating to
system needs)
•Deviance (in general) is universal and persistent.