Division of Labour in Society

In Division of Labour in Society, Durkheim used his method of studying observable social facts to explain how societies evolve from the primitive to the modern, by classifying them according to the type of social solidarity -- the bonds that hold their members together -- that each depends on. Primitive societies, he argued, rest on mechanical solidarity: their members are broadly similar to one another, living in small, largely self-sufficient groups performing similar tasks, and held together by shared belief and personal relationships. Because the community's cohesion depends on this shared sameness, mechanical solidarity societies tend to punish any deviation from communal norms harshly, through repressive law -- since even a small violation is felt as a threat to the community's very integrity. Modern societies, by contrast, rest on organic solidarity, which is built not on similarity but on difference and interdependence. In a large, heterogeneous population, no single group is self-sufficient; each specialised part depends on countless others to survive, much as the organs of a body depend on one another. Because relationships in such a society are necessarily more impersonal, its laws tend to be restitutive rather than repressive -- aimed at repairing the harm done by a wrong (as in compensation or contract law) rather than at collectively punishing the wrongdoer. Organic solidarity also allows individuals far greater autonomy than mechanical solidarity does: rather than being wholly submerged in one all-encompassing community, people in modern society belong to several different, specialised groups and associations at once, each oriented to a specific goal, which lets them build a distinct individual identity out of the dif …