How the change of French society impacted on development of Durkheim’s theories
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) lived during a period of profound transformation in Europe. The Industrial Revolution accelerated social transformation. As a result, rapid urbanization and industrialization dismantled traditional agrarian societies, while intensified social division of labor and class conflicts. In France, after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the upheaval of the Paris Commune, the Third Republic was established, where secularism and scientific rationality started to spread and gradually replaced religious authority. This social disorder, moral crises, and the rise of individualism become the major issues discussed by scholars in this period. Durkheim’s scholarship emerged from this turmoil period, seeking to answer the question: “How can modern society maintain integration and stability?” Influenced by the trend of positivism that introduced natural scientific methods to the humanities, Durkheim advocated for the study of social phenomena through empirical methods, establishing sociology as an independent discipline. His theories make an explanation for societal upheavals in this period while laying foundational methodologies for modern social science.
