I. Suicide and the Functions of Deviance

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I. Suicide and the Functions of Deviance II. The
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
(1912) III. Collins and Makowskys Critique IV.
Anne Hornsby on Durkheim and Virtual Communities
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Durkheim on the Functions of Deviance Collins
Makowsky Durkheim even went so far as to argue
that crime and deviance generally is functional
for holding society together.

• provokes rituals to reaffirm the values that
  hold society together
• a source of innovation and social change
• if deviance didnt exist, society would have to
  invent it

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Durkheim becomes the major theoretical
inspiration of functionalism in both anthropology
and sociology (e.g. in the work of Talcott
Parsons)
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The Elementary Forms of the Religious
Life perhaps the greatest single book of the
twentieth century
huh?
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Durkheim was addressing fundamental questions
involving the origin of human concepts of space
and time causality god
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God and society are one

• the experience of society gives rise to ideas of
  time, space, causality, and even god
• god is a symbol humans create to represent their
  experience of the power of society
• societys power is enhanced by this religious
  symbolization

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Durkheims main shortcoming was that he he never
came to grips with the existence of
stratification and the realities of political
conflict. --Collins and Makowsky, p. 114
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Anne Hornsby on Internet Communities Why does she
turn to Durkheim?
Durkheim is the theorist of community He provides
conceptual tools that are useful for analyzing
electronic gatherings
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Durkheims Concept of Social Solidarity
Durkheim establishes a different approach...
(Hornsby, p. 89)

• A macro approach that works down from society to
  the individual
• Society binds people through integration and
  regulationthe two glues of society (p. 90)
• Hence the thing to analyze in electronic
  communities is modes of integration and regulation

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Do electronic gatherings have any
characteristics of Durkheimian societies?

• a variety of mechanisms of regulation
• a variety of mechanism of integration
• They are based on organic solidaritybut Hornsby
  sees evidence of a new type of society emerging
• Does the importance of technology and machines
  mean that a different type of social solidarity
  and society is emerging?

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Is a new kind of society emerging, based upon our
interaction with machines? Is a new type of
social solidarity in the making? Is the
distinction between humans and machines breaking
down?
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Durkheimian questions are still important
questions Were still thinking with Durkheimian
concepts