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If Durkheim were Alive Today If Emil Durkheim came to life in our time, he would inevitably be surprised to see his social theory as not being quite adequate, in its relation to the realities of nowadays. First of all, in modern world, the division of labor is rather geographically than socially motivated. For example, it is well known that 95 % of all electronics are being assembled in China. Does it mean that the Chinese workers are more qualified than others? No, but their labor is much cheaper. Durkheim's sociology was meant to be applied in racially homogeneous societies.
The social complexity, which he discusses in his works, comes as the result of social progress. Yet, in our time, such complexity comes as the result of racial mixing. Western societies are becoming more and more multicultural. This, in its turn, affects both education and religion. Educational standards keep dropping down, because peoples ability to operate with abstract categories is undermined by the recent socio- political trends in our society. Therefore, public education cannot be thought of in terms of having a unifying social role, as suggested by Durkheim.
Quite contrary, education encourages social secularization, by promoting the concept of diversity. This is something that Durkheim could never foresee. Durkheim considered an organized religion to be very important, when it comes to maintaining social stability. This is because in his time, the Catholic Church was still being considered as the powerful force. However, in our time, the Christianity had lost of its credibility and turned itself into the meaningless ritual. Therefore, it cannot be considered as such that can unite people spiritually.
Also, the concept of multiculturalism suggests that religions must learn how to coexist, while exercising its influence over the same society. This makes Durkheim's religious solidarity to be impossible even in theory. Still, Durkheim was right to criticize Marxist view of economics, as such that alone define peoples behavior. He would probably be glad to see Marxism proving itself to be a complete ideological failure, just as Durkheim predicted.
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Research essay sample on Durkheim Social Time
