SOCIOL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mechanical And Organic Solidarity, Social Order, Altruistic Suicide
Sociology lec 3: Seeing and thinking sociologically
● The ultimate test of a sociological imagination: Suicide
○ Self-destruction
○ Taking one’s own life
○ Killing oneself
○ Self-murder
● What is “suicide” durkheim’s definition
○ All cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of
the victim her/himself, which s/ he knows will produce this result
● Why do individuals commit suicide?
○ What are common explanations we give?
■ Struggling financially-loss of pride
■ Mental health
■ Abusive relationship
■ Excessive addiction
● Durkheim
○ Ask how do we make sense of
■ That societies differ significantly in their suicide rates?
■ That trends over time within any societies are quite stable?
■ That types of suicide can differ substantially across societies?
○ His answer look to the characteristics of groups and social structures, since
individuals are defined by a collective reality
● Durkheim’s sociological treatise on suicide
○ The individual is the expression of the collectivity
○ Variation in the structure of social relations yields variation in the suicide rate
● Big questions for durkheim?
○ How is social solidarity produced?
○ How can individuals achieve consensus?
○ How is social order maintained?
○ How can a multiplicity of individuals make up a society?
● What, for Durkheim, is social structure?
○ Social structure lies at the intersection of two independent parameters-
integration and regulation
■ Integration: the extent of social relations binding a person or a group
■ Regulation: the normative or moral demand placed on the individual that
come with membership in the group
● Two ideal types of social structures emerge at the intersection of integration and
regulation
○ Social order through consensus: two extreme forms of social organization
○
Mechanical solidarity
-solidarity of sameness or
resemblance
-strong systems of common beliefs
Organic solidarity
-solidarity of difference
-with increased social differentiation
comes increasing differences among
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Document Summary
The ultimate test of a sociological imagination: suicide. All cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim her/himself, which s/ he knows will produce this result. Ask how do we make sense of. His answer look to the characteristics of groups and social structures, since individuals are defined by a collective reality. The individual is the expression of the collectivity. Variation in the structure of social relations yields variation in the suicide rate. Social structure lies at the intersection of two independent parameters- integration and regulation. Integration: the extent of social relations binding a person or a group. Regulation: the normative or moral demand placed on the individual that. Two ideal types of social structures emerge at the intersection of integration and come with membership in the group regulation. Social order through consensus: two extreme forms of social organization. With increased social differentiation comes increasing differences among.