Division of labour in society PDF

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Delivered by Dr Matthew Cooper...

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Introduction to Sociological Theory – Week 6, Lecture 1 Emile Durkheim – Division of Labour in Society

The Division of Labour (1893) – The first thing Durkheim published  From an economist’s point of view, the division of labour improves both the skill of the worker and the productive power of society.  For Durkheim, he wanted to move beyond just the economics of the division of labour and to think about the social and moral effects also. Social Evolution   

Historical process of the gradual development of more complex social organisations to simpler ones. This occurs due to greater differentiation, specialisation and individuation. Interested in the rise of the individual ad how this is ongoing and intensifying.

Mechanical solidarity The earliest forms of human association were based on similarity, were small-scale and simple. People worked together on common tasks without a high degree of specialisation. Association through likeness, similarity. Recognition of shared features such as kinship, families, clans). Common life situations and common life experiences.  

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Collective conscience – shared experiences, values, moral codes. Bind a community together. Differences or idiosyncrasies were stigmatised or punished. Repressive law – a measure or indicator of the degree of mechanical solidarity. Collective conscience and conformity are defended against by repressive laws. Laws that prevent people from doing things that could harm the collective conscience. Want to protect and reaffirm the collective conscience in the face of these ‘challenges’ or criminal acts. Organic solidarity – based on the mutual interdependence of different and diverse individuals rather than conformity based on coercion.

Three key historical processes involved in the rise of organic solidarity from mechanical. 1) Increasing population and population density 2) Increasing communities – urbanisation 3) Increasing ‘moral density’ – more communication and contact e.g. would have been word of mouth, then printed press and now with the development of technology. 

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Restitutive law – about compensating people. Trying to right wrongs. Regulates exchanges through the preservation/ restoration of equilibrium. With the move towards organic solidarity restitutive laws replaces repressive. De-traditionalisation and differentiation – waning of collective conscience, demise of collective shared norm and values, Two main consequences = 1) Cult of the individual  Personal conscience over collective consciousness.  Individualism and free-thinking are the hallmarks of modernity.

2) Anomie  A state of normlessness, no longer a code of ethics to followe, people are isolated and disconnected from the collective. Division of labour    

Societies change from mechanical to organic involves ever greater division of labour and specialisation. Move to organic means we are no longer self-sufficient but dependent on others, rely on others to provide e goods and services, rely on trade and exchange to live, Organic solidarity -based on the interdependence of otherwise individual people. In the past you would have known personally the people who you depended on to live. Now we do not know personally all the people who our way of life is dependent on.

 Anomic division of labour - Durkheim saw the treatment of workers under capitalism as pathological, in need of changing.  Forced division of labour – social inequalities should follow natural inequalities. People have different skills. People should work in the role that they are naturally most suited to. There are wrong people in wrong positions.  Gendered division of labour – in the past tasks were not specialised on gender. Men and women look far more similar and completed far more similar task, shared work....