Emile Durkheim's ground breaking article "What is a Social Fact?"
is one of the better known articulations of the "building blocks" of
functionalist and structuralist sociology. Durkheim defines social facts as predominantly
"things", that is real agents, that should be at the focal point of
the study of society. For Durkheim social facts are everything of social or
cultural nature which work to determine an individual's life. Social facts can
be social norms, values, conventions, rules and other social structures.
Social facts according to Durkheim exist outside and regardless of
the individual which only works to sustain them by yielding to their power on
him (similar to Durkheim's Totemic Principle). This means that social facts are
external to us, and they are acquired through society of coerced by it. Deviation
from social facts can result in various types of sanctions. They function as
"sui generis" generals, meaning ideas that are independent of their
actual private cases.
At the basis of the thesis Durkheim set forth in "What is a Social Fact?" lies the perception of the individual grossly conditioned by
social realities that form the boundaries of accepted behavior.
Social facts are quite simply the things that you like brushing your
teeth, voting, shopping, going to church, paying taxes, yielding to pedestrians
and so on and so forth. None of these things are done on your account, they are
done because they are social facts that must be abided and therefore have real
power over you. The way we manage our lives according to Durkheim is "What
is a Social Fact?" is always related to the workings of elaborate networks
of social facts.
Durkheim gives the example of suicide rates, found to be higher
with protestant communities compares with catholic ones. The fact that
denomination had to do with suicide was proof for Durkheim to the function of social
facts because it demonstrated how even taking your own life dependant on society
rather than individual choice.
Anomie according to Durkheim
Additional article summaries by Emile Durkheim:
Anomie according to Durkheim
Suggested reading on and by Durkheim:
