The Division of Labor in Society

Front Cover
Free Press, 1997 - Social Science - 352 pages
Originally published in 1893 and never out of print, Emile Durkheim’s groundbreaking work remains one of the cornerstone texts of the sociological canon—now updated and re-translated in this new edition.

As the Industrial Revolution was changing the landscape of society, Durkheim presented a new vision of the social structures at the root of capitalism, and the issues he grappled with still resound today. If pre-industrial societies were held together by common values, sentiments, and norms, equally shared by all, what holds modern societies, with their complex division of labor and non-cohesive social structure, together? What did this new social order mean for the autonomy of the individual? Durkheim argued that class conflict is not inherent in a capitalist society, as Marx contended, but that the unfettered growth of state power would lead to the extinction of individuality. Only in a free society that promotes voluntary bonds between its members, Durkheim suggested, can individuality prosper.

In this new edition, the first since 1984, world-renowned Durkheim scholar Steven Lukes revisits and revises the original translation to enhance clarity, accuracy, and fluency for the contemporary reader. Lukes also highlights Durkheim’s arguments by putting them into historical context with a timeline of important information. For students and scholars, this edition of The Division of Labor is essential reading and key to understanding the relevance of Durkheim’s ideas today.

From inside the book

Contents

Translators Note
vii
Preface to the First Edition
xxv
Introduction
1
Copyright

15 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1997)

Emile Durkheim was born in Epinal, France on April 15, 1858. He received a baccalauréats in Letters in 1874 and Sciences in 1875 from the Collège d'Epinal. He became a professor of sociology at the Sorbonne, where he founded and edited the journal L'Annee Sociologique. He is renowned for the breadth of his scholarship; for his studies of primitive religion; for creating the concept of anomie (normlessness); for his study of the division of labor; and for his insistence that sociologists must use sociological (e.g., rates of behavior) rather than psychological data. He published several works including His Suicide in 1897. His notion of community, his view that religion forms the basis of all societies, had a profound impact on the course of community studies. He died on November 15, 1917 at the age of 59.

Bibliographic information