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Emile Durkheim Conflict Theory

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INTRODUCTION: Durkheim, Marx and Weber are the most important early Western sociologists to understand sociology as a discipline. Emile Durkheim was a functionalist as he believed that the existence of the individuals and the institutions of which the individuals are a part of, function to maintain social integration and social stability. So, society for Durkheim is “sui generis” as it is independent of the individuals who make it up. Marx and Weber on the other hand were conflict theorists as they considered the conflict between the individuals and among the groups was an important attribute of each and every society. Marx had his approach based on economic influence on society that leads to problems in the social institutions. According to …show more content…

A complex organization of labor becomes necessary for the production of material life. Since the people start to specialize in their tasks, the basis for the collective conscience is diminished. Social integration based on the common belief system is no longer possible. Durkheim did not look at complexity as way of disintegrating society but rather he perceived complexity as social solidarity based on the aspects of interdependence. Since people are no longer producing all the things that they need, they must interact. Integration results from a recognition that each needs the other. The arrangement of the organic societies is based on economic and political organization. The legal systems in such societies regulate behavior based on principles of exchange and restitution, rather than …show more content…

He pointed out in The Division of Labor in the Society that “the remedy for the ill is nevertheless not to seek to revive traditions and practices that no longer correspond to present day social conditions, and that could only subsist in a life that would be artificial, one only of appearance. We need to put a stop to this anomie and to find ways of harmonious cooperation between those organs that still clash discordantly together. We need to introduce into their relationship a great justice by diminishing those external inequalities that are the source of our

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