Tag Archives: emile durkheim

Ritual and meaning in post Christian society…

Posted on by
Reply

dscf3752

Religion, according to sociologists like Durkheim, plays a vital role in society.

It unites and solidifies our morality, our world view and facilitates social cohesion. According to Durkheim, religion is very real; it is an expression of society itself, and indeed, there is no society that does not have religion.

Since Durkheim, there have been many discussions about the value of religion to society. Some have been critical, and seen organised religion as a form of social control and a supporter of oppression and a reactionary force in favour of the status quo. It seems clear that it has indeed been used for this purpose.

The interesting question for those of us living in a post Christian world in Western Europe, is if organised religion has lost a central place at the heart of society, then are there measurable sociological effects of this on our societies?

As we lose the unifying and cohesive affect of shared faith, might we expect to see an erosion of some of the key aspects of our society? Our social and class structures, our sense of community and belonging etc?

I have been enough of a social science student to avoid making broad unsupported generalisations, and I am yet to find some recent research about this (If you come across any, I would love to hear from you.)However, it is clear that some of the cohesion seen in modern society has now gone. What we appear to unite behind these days is very different from what motivated our collectivisation 50 years ago.

So if Durkheim is right, and all societies have a shared religion, then how might we understand this in our post-Christian western societies? Particularly when the drive appears to be towards increasingly individualistic activities based on ‘choice’.

What brings meaning to life?

What allows us to express our collective consciousness?

Some have suggested that football fills this slot in many people’s lives.

We are just back from a journey down south to visit family in the Midlands. I took the photograph above at the site of the death of a young man killed on a road crossing. Family and friends had left flowers and cans of beer hanging on the railings, as well as football scarves. It occurred to me that what we regard as central to life will shape the rituals and ceremony we use to mark the stuff of humanity.

I also had a conversation with my brother in law- a great bloke. He jokingly described how his i-pod, when set to random, seemed to constantly pick appropriate songs from the thousands stored on it, to fit in with the activity or mood he was experiencing.

Is this evidence of our human need for ritual and meaning beyond the temporal and mundane? For a collectivisation of our consciousness and the need to mythologise this in the form of things sacred beyond the profane?

Or is this a fluid society in the middle of huge social change, struggling to fill what we used to call ‘the God shaped hole’ in the middle of all of us?

However we understand it, the need for meaning and ritual seems pretty universal, even for we post-moderns. And I think that God is not done with us, nor we with him.

Capitalism, Durkheim and Rev. Billy.

Posted on by
3

Laurie Taylor on Radio 4 has set me thinking again, on his programme ‘Thinking allowed’- which looks at social scientific research. You can listen again here.

This time, he took me back to my ‘A’ level sociology days, and to the French 19th C philosopher Emile Durkheim, and his great work ‘Suicide’.

Durkheim wrote about a kind of existential crisis that people could experience in a time of economic crisis- when the norms and structures people have been used to living by break down, and people find themselves in a state that he called ‘anomie’.

Durkeim suggested that people need to be part of something bigger- to be integrated and linked, and when this begins to break down, the end result is anomie, which in turn, leads to a time when the anchors and moorings that hold us together are gone.

Durkheim thought that this was one of the three main reasons why people committed suicide- a breakdown of what made them human, and held them in community.

He suggested that the way to overcome this was through ‘moral education’, or ‘moral regulation’- and these things would be managed through the function of the institutions of society.

So, how does this relate to the current economic crisis?

Taylor made these fascinating comments. He sited a review of 2300 major research papers- looking at business research and training. The study concluded that the focus had been almost exclusively on minor techincal problems to do with the operation of markets, rather than the larger political and ethical considerations. Here is a quote from the researcher;

‘We have failed to teach our students the kind of social conscience and ethics and concern for the world and the environment and the poor that might have had an effect on the selfish exuberance of the finance markets’ Dr Harni.

I have heard a lot of economic ‘experts’ being interviewed giving opinion an comments as the economic crisis unfolds. They are often made to look fools by the events of the next day. It has often occurred to me that these are the same movers and shakers who moved and shook us into the current predicament, now being wise after the event…

But even from them, you hear some talk of ethics, and regulation. REGULATION- in the free market?

Almost like Dr Frankenstein wanting to cage the beast.

So is it too late? Will anomie, or whatever, result in a change to the way that we are? It remains to be seen. But the system we have in not sustainable.

Check this out, it made me smile.