Durkheim & Functionalism Durkheim looked at how the big things affected the little people in society; the 'top-down' approach'

GCSE Sociology

Andy Watkins U6W 12/09/2005

Durkheim & Functionalism

Durkheim looked at how the big things affected the little people in society; the ‘top-down’ approach’.

using systematic research
the idea of social structure
the idea of imperial research

He came up with the idea of SOCIAL FACTS

these refer to social structures and cultural norms

These ‘social facts’ are independent institutions that affect the way that people behave

Durkheim argued that sociology should study these social facts, arguing that the belief systems, customs and institutions of society and the facts of the social world should all be considered as things in the same way as the objects and events of the natural world.

Durkheim sees society as not just a collection of individuals, each acting independently. Instead members of society are directed by collective beliefs, values and laws, by social facts which have an existence of their own.

Durkheim splits these social facts into MATERIAL and NON-MATERIAL social facts:

Material social facts:

structural components of society – institutions

involved with morphological components of society

Non-Material social facts:

moral and cultural components (e.g. morality, collective conscience)

There were 3 main areas that Durkheim looked at:

1 – The transition from primary to modern society

Primitive ...