FUNCTIONAL THEORY ACCORDING TO EMILE DURKHEIM

Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist often regarded as the father of sociology, developed the
functionalist perspective, which views society as a complex system of interrelated and
interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability and meet the needs of its members.
Durkheim believed that society has a structure of its own, distinct from the individuals within it,
and that this structure is composed of various social institutions, such as family, education,
economy, and religion, which serve specific functions necessary for the smooth operation and
evolution of society.

Durkheim's functionalism is based on two key ideas. Firstly, society has a reality above the
individuals who comprise it, shaping individuals through social facts, or ways of acting, thinking,
and feeling that are external to the individual and endowed with the power of coercion.
Secondly, too much freedom can be detrimental to individuals, leading to a sense of confusion
and uncertainty, which Durkheim calls "anomie." To counteract this, societies create social
solidarity through various structures, such as family, religion, schools, workplaces, and voluntary
organizations.

Durkheim's work on social solidarity and the division of labor in society is particularly
noteworthy. He identified two types of social solidarity: mechanical and organic. Mechanical
solidarity exists in traditional societies with limited division of labor, while organic solidarity
characterizes modern societies with a highly developed division of labor. Durkheim's research
on suicide rates and their correlation with religion-based differences further illustrates the
importance of social solidarity in understanding social phenomena.

In summary, Durkheim's functional theory posits that society is a complex system of interrelated
parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of its members. Social institutions, such
as family, education, economy, and religion, serve specific functions necessary for the smooth
operation and evolution of society. Durkheim's work on social solidarity and the division of labor
in society, as well as his research on suicide rates and their correlation with religion-based
differences, are significant contributions to the functionalist perspective.

SOCIAL FACT

To Durkheim society is a ‘sui generis’. Hence society represents a specific reality which has its
own characteristics. Thus ‘this reality of society must be the subject matter of sociology’.

According to Durkheim, Social fact is that way of acting, thinking or feeling etc., which is more or
less general in a given society. Durkheim treated social facts as things. They are real and exist
independent of individual’s will or desire. They are external to individuals and are capable of
exerting constraint upon them. In other words they are coercive in nature. Further social facts
exist in their own right. They are independent of individual manifestations. The true nature of
social facts lies in the collective or associational characteristics inherent in society. Legal codes
and customs, moral rules, religious beliefs and practices, language etc. are all social facts.

Durkheim saw social facts as laying in a continuum. First, on the one extreme are structural or
morphological-social phenomena. They make up the substratum of collective life. By this he
meant the number and nature of elementary parts of which society is composed, the way in
which the morphological constituents are arranged and the degree to which they are fused
together. In this category of social facts following are included: the distribution of population over
the surface of the territory, the forms of dwellings, nature of communication system etc. All the
above mentioned social facts form a continuum and constitute a social milieu of society.

Further Durkheim made an important distinction in terms of Normal and pathological social
facts: a social fact is normal when it is generally encountered in a society of a certain type at a
certain phase in its evolution. Every deviation from this standard is a pathological fact. For
example, ‘some degree of crime’ is inevitable and normal in any society. Hence according to
Durkheim crime to some extent is a normal fact. However, an extraordinary increase in the rate
of crime is pathological. Periodical price rise is normal social fact but economic crisis leading to
anarchy in society are other examples of pathological facts.

For Durkheim the ‘subject’ of sociology is the “social fact”, and that social facts must be
regarded as ‘things’. In Durkheim’s view sociology as an ‘objective science’ must conform to the
model of the other sciences. It posed two requirements: first the ‘subject’ of sociology must be
specific’. And it must be distinguished from the ‘subjects’ of all other sciences. Secondly the
‘subject’ of sociology must be such as to be “observed and explained”. Similar to the way in
which facts are observed and explained in other sciences.

Main characteristics of social facts:

Externality,
Constraint,
Independence, and
Generality.
Social facts, according to Durkheim, exist outside individual consciences. Their existence is
external to the individuals. For example ‘domestic or civic or contractual obligations’ are defined,
externally to be individual, ‘in laws and customs’. ‘Religious beliefs and practices exist outside
and prior’ to the individual. An individual takes birth in a society and leaves it; however “social
facts” are already given in society. For example language continues to function independently of
any single individual.
The other characteristic of social fact is that it exercises a constraint on individuals. “Social fact”
is recognized because it ‘forces itself’ on the individual. For example, the institutions of law,
education beliefs etc. are already given to everyone from without. They are ‘commanding and
obligatory’ for all. Such a phenomenon is typically social because its basis, its subject is the
group as a whole and not one individual in particular.
A social fact is that which has more or less a general occurrence in a society. Also it is
‘independent of the personal features of individuals’ or ‘universal attributes of human nature’.
Examples are the beliefs, feelings and practices of the group taken collectively. The social fact is
specific. It is born of the association of individuals. It represents a ‘collective content of social
group. or society’. It differs in kind from what occurs in individual consciousness. Social facts
can be subjected to categorization and classification. Above all social facts from the subjects
matter of the science of sociology.

Thus social facts can be recognized because they are external to the individuals on the one
hand, are capable of exercising coercion over them. Since they are external they are also
general and because they are collective, they can be imposed on the individuals who form a
given society.