CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY General Editor:ANTHONY GIDDENS This series aims to create a forum for debate between different theoretical and philosophicaltraditions in thesocial sciences.Aswellascovering broad schoolsof thought, the series also concentrates upon the work of particular thinkers whose ideas have hadamajorimpactonsocialscience (these books appearunder the sub series title of "Theoretical Traditions in the Social Sciences"). The series is not limited toabstract theoretical discussion - it also includes more substantial works oncontemporarycapitalism,thestate, politics andother subjectareas. Publishedtitles MartinAlbrow,MaxWeber'sConstructionofSocial Theory Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett,Philip Jones,KenSheard,MichelleStanworth and Andrew Webster,IntroductorySociology (2ndedition) Emile Durkheim,TheDivisionofLabourinSociety (trans.W.D.Halls) Emile Durkheim,TheRulesofSociologicalMethod (ed.Steven Lukes,trans. W. D.Halls) Anthony Giddens,A ContemporaryCritiqueofHistorical Materialism (2ndedition) Anthony Giddens,CentralProblems inSocial Theory Anthony GiddensandDavid Held(eds), Classes,Powerand Conflict:Classical and ContemporaryDebates TerryJohnson, ChristopherDandekerandClive Ashworth,TheStructureofSocial Theory Gerry Rose,Deciphering SociologicalResearch THEORETICAL TRADITIONS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES General Editor: ANTHONY GIDDENS This series introduces the work of major figures insocial science to students beyond theirimmediatespecialisms. Published Titles IraJ.Cohen,StructurationTheory:AnthonyGiddens and theConstitution of SocialLife Mark Cousins and Athar Hussain, Michel Foucault William Outhwaite,New PhilosophiesofSocialScience:Realism, Hermeneuticsand Critical Theory Dennis Smith, The Chicago School: ALiberalCritiqueofCapitalism The Division of Labour in Society Emile Durkheim With an introduction by Lewis Coser w. Translated by D. Halls IntroductionCLewisCoser1984 TranslationCMacmillanPress1984 AUrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionof thispublicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedor transmittedsavewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewith theprovisionsoftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988, orunderthetermsofanylicencepermittinglimitedcopying issuedbytheCopyrightlicensingAgency,90TottenhamCourt Road.LondonW1T4LP. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothis publicationmaybeliabletoaiminalprosecutionandcivil claimsfordamages. Theauthorshaveassertedtheirrightstobeidentifiedastheauthorsof thisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright.DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished1984by PALGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG21 6XSand 175FifthAvenue,NewYork.N.Y.10010 Companiesand representativesthroughouttheworld PALGRAVEIsthenewglobalacademicimprintof StMartin'sPressLLCScholarlyandReferenceDivisionand PalgravePublishersLtd(formerlyMaaniUanPressLtd). ISBN978-0-333-33981-7 ISBN978-1-349-17729-5(eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17729-5 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingand madefromfullymanagedandsustainedforestsources. Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailable fromtheBritishLibrary. 13 12 11 10 9 03 02 Contents Translator's Note vii Introduction (by Lewis Coser) ix Preface to the First Edition xxv Preface to the Second Edition xxxi Introduction 1 BOOK I THE FUNCTION OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR ChapterI: The Method of DeterminingThis Function 11 Chapter II: Mechanical Solidarity, or Solidarity by Similarities 31 Chapter III: Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labour, or Organic Solidarity 68 Chapter IV: Another Proofof the PrecedingTheory 88 Chapter V:The Increasing Preponderance of Organic Solidarity and itsConsequences 101 Chapter VI: The Increasing Preponderance of Organic Solidarity and its Consequences (cont.) 126 Chapter VII: Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity 149 BOOK II THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS Chapter I: The Progress of the Division of Labourand of Happiness 179 ChapterII:The Causes 200 Chapter III:Secondary Factors 226 Chapter IV:Secondary Factors (cont.) 246 Chapter V: Consequences of the Foregoing 269 vi Contents BOOK III THE ABNORMAL FORMS Chapter I: The Anomie Division of Labour 291 Chapter II:The Forced Division of Labour 310 Chapter III: Another Abnormal Form 323 Conclusion 329 Index 343 Translator's Note For various reasons it has proved impossible to check every footnote and to supply complete references. Durkheirn omitted veryfrequently details that would have made this possible. However, most of the direct quotations from English-speaking authors have been found and the original inserted. Where this has not been possible, what are givenasdirectquotationsinDurkheim have been turned into indirect speech. W.O.H. vii Introduction* Emile Durkheim's The Division ofLabourin Society,hisdoctoral dissertation and his first major work, was published in 1893. Though a previous translation into English appeared in 1933, the presentvolumeisthefirstexact,adequateand satisfyingtranslation of this key work. The Division ofLabour isa highly original treatmentof thesub ject,yet it should be read within the contextof earlier attempts to come togripswith thecomplexdivisionoflabourthatemergedwith the industrial revolution, first in England and then on the Conti nent. Whatisnovel inDurkheim'sthoughtcan bestbeunderstoodif one refers,even ifonly sketchily,to previousattemptsto defineand come to grips with the emergence of an unprecedented system of production and the allocationof bothproductiveandothersocietal tasks in the late eighteenth century. Some forms ofthedivision oflabour,beitonly alongsexuallines, havecharacterised allknowntypes ofsocietyfrom the'primitive'to the modern.Inallofthem,certaintypes oflabour,butalso ofother functions, were allocated to specific groups of people.Even in the smallest known human societies there are some forms of human differentiation in the allocation of tasks and roles. * In the following pages Iamdeeply indebt to the writings of Anthony Giddens on Durkheim, in particular his Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (Cambridge,Cambridge University Press, 1971)and hisDurkheim (London,Fontana/Collins,1978).Ialsoowe agreatdeal toStevenLukes's EmileDurkheim:His Life and Work (London, Allen Lane, 1973).Other, lessextensive,debts are acknowledged intextual notes.Philippe Besnard and AnthonyGiddensreadanearlierversionofthisintroductionand made many helpful suggestionsfor which Iam grateful. ix x Introduction Mediaeval society and its characteristic thinkers were welJaware ofthe diversityofwork activitiesintheir midst,and writings on the differences among such 'callings' took prominent place among the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century and after. But the pre-modern division of labour involved, by and large, either divisions between urban artisansand rural folk who were involved inspecific trades and occupationsor rough class divisions between the members of the various estates that together made up pre modern society. Butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers fashioned productsofadifferent nature and weresocially visiblein the pursuitofthesedifferentoccupationalwaysoflife.On the other hand, there were sharpdivisionsbetween those devoted to military affairs, peoplewho were following areligiouscalling,and those,the greatmajority, who labouredinthe fields or in urbanoccupations. Aqualitativesea changeinthe characterofthedivision oflabour - achangefrom relativesimplicityto rapidlyadvancingcomplexity - occurred, though adumbrations can be found much earlier, only withthe beginningofthe industrialrevolution,first inthe latterpart of the eighteenth century in England and soon after in the rest of Europe and in America. Theemergingindustrialform ofproduction involvedthe gradual replacementofanartisanalmodeofproduction,thatis,adivisionof labour in which a particular producer, sometimes with the assis tance of a few others, fashioned a whole product, by a mode of production based on a much finer differentiation of tasks and activitiesthanpreviously.Theproductsofthe new industrialsystem were no longercreatedbyindividualcraftsmen orbythe collabora tion of a few,but emerged instead from the co-ordinated activities of a large number of persons who had been assigned specialised tasks. Thefinalproductwasthe resultofthe integrationofthe work of a great number of workers who were submitted to overall discipline and co-ordination - be it by the tyranny of the clock, by the constraints of supervisors, or by mechanical rhythms. Moreover, the diversification of economic tasks was paralleled in the modern era by differentiation in many other spheres, in government as well as in the law, in the sciences as well as in legal institutions. Adam Smith's The Wealth ofNations was the first major work that attempted to come to grips with this revolutionary develop ment not only inthe productivesystembut in the generalcharacter