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Running head: Glass Paper Beans as Seen through Durkheim

Glass Paper Beans as Seen through Durkheim Final Essay Sociology of Culture and Society March 27th, 2017

Within the novel Glass, Paper, Beans, there is a common theme that surrounds values, beliefs and norms. The theorist, Emile Durkheim, has done much research and writings on how these beliefs, values and norms are conveyed in society by being

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Running head: Glass Paper Beans as Seen through Durkheim

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passed down throughout time. In his writings these theories are called social facts, social order/organization and collective conscious. The ways in which we interact as a society stem from each of these as we learn behaviour as it is passed down from family members, teachers, and even the media nowadays. In this sense, popular culture becomes integrated with our social facts, social order/organization, and collective conscious, as Durkheim would claim. Durkheim explains that social facts are “the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively. But the forms that these collective states may assume when they are 'refracted' through individuals are things of a different kind”(Bancroft & Rogers, 2010). In this sense, the values and beliefs that are gathered from society are taken as a group, collectively and therefore would not have meaning to society as a whole if it came from the individual. In relation to Durkheim’s theories, the novel Glass, Paper, Beans displays how values, norms and beliefs are created through social facts, social order/organization and the collective conscious by displaying that each individual lives in a different country, being Canada, United States, and Mexico but even then they all have the same concept of time, day to day life and use value from certain products. Cohen (1997) states, “everyday this happens, all over the world, for all of our lives” (p.1). By indicating this, it expands on Durkheim’s thoughts on how society acts as a collective group in order to form the values and norms within it. In the novel and through Emile Durkheim’s theories, there is a common theme of what and how something becomes valued in our society. Through the theorist Emile Durkheim, this is done through social facts, social order/organization, collective consciousness and popular culture which each define

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our norms, values and beliefs that are prevalent in the theme of value within the novel Glass, Paper, Beans. To begin, for Durkheim, the use of social facts in society are ways of acting and thinking that exist outside the individual conscience in which, have no constraints on them (Gisbert, 1959, p. 354). In a way, Durkheim believes that these social facts should be treated as “things” so, acting and thinking become the “things” in which society possesses to create social organization. Durkheim further explains, “What constitutes social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively. But the forms that these collective states may assume when they are 'refracted' through individuals are things of a different kind”(Bancroft & Rogers, 2010). Here, Durkheim is explaining that these rules and regulations begin as individual acts but then become collective in order for them to be considered social facts.

Drawing on the theme of value from the novel Glass, Paper, Beans in regards to social facts, it becomes very obvious that over time, social facts begin through an individual but can only be considered a social fact through the collective manner. Specifically, the author Leah Hager Cohen chose to explain the Mayans developing the concept of time and date. This indicates the level of power the conscious collective has amongst society because this concept of time and date has been used for so many years, and continues to be used significantly today. So much of our lives are planned around time and dates that this is probably one of the main social facts within our society because of the ways we act and think on the terms of the date and time. In the novel, Cohen states “ At some level, the compulsion to measure and create expressions

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of time seems embedded in human nature”(Hager-Cohen, 2002, p.65). This indicates that there was a need for human society to have some sort of concept of date and time, and through collective action the Mayan calendar was chosen to be just that. Building on from Durkheim’s concept of social fact is his concept of social order. Durkheim defined the social order as “the set of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a single society which forms a determinate system that has its own life”(Mayes, 1980, p. 81). This goes a step further than social facts as it is not just surrounding the ‘thing’ itself but also the system in which a society follows. Social order is therefore the collective action of a society to conform to the same obligations of the individual, social goals, and even behaviours that become how a society is organized (Mayes, 1980, p. 82). Social order becomes the conditions that specific conditions that individuals are placed in which are passed on and carried out by many individuals to create the order within that society (p.82). Furthermore, the value theme in Glass, Paper, Beans is present in Durkheim’s theory of social order because there is a very distinct specification of the lives the characters live, and how they are similar. Although they live in different parts of the world, being Canada, United States and Mexico, they often have very similar morning, afternoon, and evening routines because of how they are socialized within their society as to what is acceptable and what is not. Each character is living an average life, with average jobs, even using the same materials such as glass, paper, and beans. This displays the value theme because each of their lives values these materials similarly because of the social order the society has collectively created. A specific example of this value is displayed through Brent as Cohen states “Brent has a good idea, when he’s

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cutting, where the wood will end up, which is to say he knows by the species and size and quality of a tree whether he’s harvesting studwood, firewood, spoolwood, or pulpwood” (Hager-Cohen, 2002, p. 134). It is explained that at this point, Brent knows where he’ll get the contract because of his knowledge about the different types of forestry products. This indicates the level of importance that comes from passing along ways of life. Brent knows these things because of his father, who learned it from someone and so on. With the paper mills around, the social organization of different wood becomes prevalent in something that is as simple as wood, we learn it isn’t just one kind, there is more to it than that. This knowledge of different types of wood created the social organization specifically to the forestry industry over time.

Continuing on with Durkheim’s theory surrounding social order comes the collective conscience. Durkheim defines the collective conscious as the “common ways of defining the world, as well as the common moral bond between people”( RidenourJones, 1994, p. IV). In this sense, the collective conscience keeps a society organized and in a functioning manner because it holds together the social order and social facts that a society possess by being the reason they become enforced within society in the first place. The collective conscience is what creates the social organization because over time, it becomes what the society has collectively agreed upon as the ways it will go about deciding norms, values and beliefs. Durkheim states that “But the consciencecollective changes only slowly. The old ways have ‘always worked’...It is the young who are not afraid of change. It takes time for the old generation to accept change” (Ridenour-Jones, 1994, P.72). This is because over time, society develops a specific way to go about the social organization and the older a person is, the longer they have been

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around a particular organization, so change becomes difficult. Therefore, Durkheim believes that there is no consistency within the collective-conscience, there is only what is acceptable and what is not.

Continuing on with the value theme within Glass, Paper, Beans in relation to Durkheim’s collective conscience theory, comes Cohen’s discussion of the glass. Throughout the novel, there is mention of the process of how glass came to be, from where it began to where it is in terms of today’s society. At the first mention of this production, Cohen states, “No one really knows how or when humans discovered the art of making glass. Neither is it a solid, nor does it obey the rules we have imagined for liquids: how did we ever get our hands around the secret of this improbable substance?” (Hager-Cohen, 2002, p.71). This indicates that at some point, a person figured out how to create glass, and use it in ways that could be commonly used within that society and eventually turn into something that is seen through collective action. As Cohen also states that glass today is often used as something we drink out of, which has a long history of its own, indicating that glass is of social significance because of what people have come to value it within our society through a collective action.

Finally, through Durkheim’s theories of social fact, social order and collective conscience, comes the discussion of how things become popular culture. Social facts and social order are shaped around moral facts and in that case, become part of the collective conscience. In the lecture Culture in the Classical Tradition “Moral facts become a part of our collective conscience in which they all have a common view of our same society or culture” (White, 2017). In this case, this can be said for popular culture

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because it is the collective decision of society that creates an aspect of popular culture. In the lecture Popular cultural Industries and the Commodification of Creativity it was discussed that Popular culture represents a set of generally available symbolic artifacts and different cultural forms” (White, 2017) in terms of this novel, glass, paper and beans would be the symbolic artifacts in which society has turned into popular culture.

The final example taken from the novel Glass, Paper, Beans is production of coffee. This can be considered popular culture because of the collective consciousness that brought about the belief that coffee is good because it tastes good and which has been supported within our society for many, many years. Cohen states “Coffee came to people late, in the fifth or the ninth or the eleventh century A.D., and until it came no one missed or dreamed of it, and when it did they kept thinking it was the fruit of the devil before tasting it and changing their minds” (p. 81). This explains how something that was not considered agreeable amongst a society can turn into something that would never be left out of that society because it was a collective agreement to enjoy the taste of coffee. Therefore, the social fact and collective consciousness of the idea of coffee became something of value to a society and therefore agreed upon as an aspect that would not be left out ever again.

In conclusion, the common theme of value within the novel Glass, Paper, Beans and Emile Durkheim’s theories of social fact, social order, collective conscience and popular culture, it is easy to see that our norms, values and beliefs are created collectively. Through the characters within the novel and explanations of Durkheim’s

Running head: Glass Paper Beans as Seen through Durkheim theories, it is obvious that social order in terms of our values, norms, and beliefs is a necessity for our society to function.

References

Bancroft, A., & Rogers, S. (2010). Emile Durkheim - What is a Social Fact? Retrieved March 24, 2017, from http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/durkheim10.html Cohen, L. H. (1997). Glass, paper, beans: revelations on the nature and value of ordinary things. New York: Doubleday/Currency.

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Running head: Glass Paper Beans as Seen through Durkheim Gisbert, P. (1959). Social Facts in Durkheim's System. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40454241 Mayes, S. S. (1980, March). Sociological Thought in Emile Durkheim and George Fitzhugh. Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/590065.pdf Ridenour-Jones, J. (2017, March 26). The Importance of the Concept of ConscienceCollective in Emile Durkheim's Thought: A Theoretical and Historical Analysis. Retrieved May 1, 1994, from http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1952&context=theses White, D. (2017). Culture in the Classical Tradition. Trent University. White, D. (2017). Popular Cultural Industries and the Commodification of Creativity. Trent University.

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