Emile Durkheim Suicide Analysis

Assignment Two: Critical Examination of the Relevance of Emile Durkheim’s Analysis of Suicide for Contemporary Society In 1897 Emile Durkheim published the results of the first sociological study to systematically apply scientific principles, entitled Suicide. In so doing, he demonstrated the scientific discipline of sociology. In tandem with his other works, this has resulted in his being hailed as a founding father (Ritzer, 2011, p. 183; Tiryakian, 2009, p. 11), and the principle architect (Calhoun, 2012, p.197), of sociology. Modern scholars have gone so far as to say that “before Durkheim sociology was a provocative idea, by his professional endeavours it became an established social fact”, and that Durkheim “refashioned sociology
Types of social facts. Durkheim explicated two distinct types of social facts as being: material social facts, which are physically manifest and directly observable through things such as architecture, laws, housing types, institutions, and population density; and nonmaterial social facts, which are expressed through human interactions and may be indirectly observed through: morality; social currents which Durkheim posited as being strong waves of thought and emotion generated in large groups (Durkheim, 1895/1982, pp. 52-53); collective conscience, which was theorized as being conveyed throughout a society, independent, capable of determining other social facts, and expressed through individual conscience (Ritzer, 2011, p. 190); and collective representations emotions such as legends, myths, and symbols of power and religion which were posited to be representations of societal beliefs, and motivations (Durkheim, 1895/1982, p. 40; Ritzer, 2011, p.
241, 243). This can be illustrated through research conducted in the United Kingdom which cited a lack of social integration and feelings of isolation as challenging 97 percent of the communities studied (Easton, 2008, n.p.). Anomie has also been cited as the cause of social violence during sports activities (Bodin, Héas, & Robène, 2004, n.p.), popularity of political leaders such as Hitler (Poulantzas, 1974, p. 230), current Wall Street culture of excessive economic individualism (Lukes, 2008, para. 5), and “frenetic efforts” of contemporary society to incessantly connect digitally (Simmons, 2013, p.