Durkheim is one of the founding fathers of modern sociology and a key figure in the development of social theory. And yet today his work is often misunderstood, since it is commonly viewed through the lens of later authors who used his writings to illustrate certain tendencies in social thought. Durkheim Reconsidered challenges the common views of Durkheim and offers a fresh and much-needed reappraisal of his ideas. Stedman Jones dismantles the interpretations of Durkheim that remain widespread in Anglo-American sociology and then examines afresh his major works, placing them in their historical and political context. She emphasizes Durkheim's debt to the socialist and republican thought of his contemporaries - and especially to Renouvier who, she argues, had a profound influence on Durkheim's approach. This book will be recognised as a major reinterpretation of the work of one of the most important figures in the history of sociology and social thought. It will be of great interest to scholars and students in sociology, anthropology and related disciplines.

Understanding the significance of adult play in the life of modern societies Within the social sciences, few matters are as significant as the study of human play--or as neglected. In Play Reconsidered, rather than viewing play simply as a preoccupation of the young and a vehicle for skill development, Thomas S. Henricks argues that it’s a social and cultural phenomenon of adult life, enveloped by wider structures and processes of society. In that context, he argues that a truly sociological approach to play should begin with a consideration of the largely overlooked writings on play and play-related topics by some of the classic sociological thinkers of the twentieth century. Henricks explores Karl Marx’s analysis of creativity in human labor, examines Emile Durkheim’s observations on the role of ritual and the formation of collective consciousness, extends Max Weber’s ideas about the process of rationalization to the realm of expressive culture and play, surveys Georg Simmel’s distinctive approach to sociology and sociability, and discusses Erving Goffman’s focus on human conduct as process and play as “encounter.” These and other discussions of the contributions of more recent sociologists are framed by an initial consideration of Johan Huizinga’s famous challenge to understand the nature and significance of play. In a closing synthesis, Henricks distinguishes play from other forms of human social expression, particularly ritual, communitas, and work.

An authoritative and comprehensive collection of essays redefining the relevance of Durkheim to the human sciences in the twenty-first century.

This book offers a reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in the context of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously misinterpreted Kant by interpreting his theory of the categories as psychological faculties. Durkheim's sociological theory of the categories, as revealed by Warren Schmaus, is an attempt to provide an alternative way of understanding Kant. For Durkheim the categories are necessary conditions for human society. The concepts of causality, space and time underpin the moral rules and obligations that make society possible. A particularly interesting feature of this book is its transcendence of the distinction between intellectual and social history by placing Durkheim's work in the context of the French educational establishment of the Third Republic. It does this by subjecting student notes and philosophy textbooks to the same sort of critical analysis typically applied only to the classics of philosophy.

For Durkheim is a timely and original contribution to the debate about Durkheim at a time when his concerns on ethics, morality and civil religion have much relevance for our own troubled and divided society. It includes two new essays from Edward A. Tiryakian’s collection on the Danish Muhammad cartoons and September 11th, providing contemporary relevance to the debate and an analytical and interpretive introduction indicating the ongoing importance of Durkheim within sociology. This indispensable volume for all serious Durkheim scholars includes English translations of papers previously published in French for the first time, and will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, social historians and those interested in critical questions of modernity.

This book examines Durkheim's considerable achievements and situates them in their social and intellectual contexts, with a concise account of the major elements of Durkheim's sociology. The book includes a critical commentary on the four main studies which exemplify Durkheim's contribution to sociology: The Division of Labour in Society; Suicide; The Rules of Sociological Method and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Emile Durkheim's work on religion occupies a central place in religious studies classrooms today. This volume is designed as a resource for teachers, offering practical advice about productive ways to approach central texts and difficult pedagogical issues.

This book investigates the relation between Durkheim’s sociology, Critical Theory, and the philosophy of social sciences. The book is organized in four sections: confronting Durkheim and other critical traditions; inquiring his social and critical ontology; interrogating the relation between social practices and justice; and discussing his relevance in contemporary politics and political theory. An international group of philosophers, sociologists, and critical theorists contribute to show Durkheim’s reflection as an important complement—or an alternative—to the Hegelian-Marxist and post-structuralist conceptions of social critique. In this way, the book intends to inaugurate a new reflection on social critique at the intersection between philosophy and sociological theory.

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This book provides an exciting, accessible and wide-ranging guide to the development of classical and contemporary Durkheimian thought. Jonathan Fish offers a re-reading of the writings of Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons on religion. He aims to move beyond rationalistic readings which have neglected the key significance of collective human emotion in Durkheim's accounts of the link between society, religion and morality. He goes on to look at the development of these ideas in the work of Parsons and more recent Durkheimian thinkers. Making an important contribution both to studies of Durkheim and the Durkheimian tradition and to the sociology of emotion, the book is distinctive in arguing that religion is an essential backdrop for understanding emotion. In making this claim the author provides a key to re-establishing links between the sociology of religion and the wider discipline of sociology.