Émile Durkheim and the collective consciousness of society : a study in criminology / Kenneth Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Kenneth (Kenneth Ronald), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Durkheim, Émile, 1858-1917.

Sociology.

Consciousness--Social aspects.

Consciousness.

Crime--Sociological aspects.

Crime.

Durkheim, Émile, 1858-1917--Political and social views.

Durkheim, Émile.

Political and social views.

Physical Description:

xvi, 260 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Anthem Press, 2014.

Summary:

Émile Durkheim and the Collective Consciousness of Society: A Study in Criminology challenges conventional thinking on the use of Durkheim's key concept of the collective consciousness of society', and represents the first ever book-length treatment of this underexplored topic. Operating from both a criminological and sociological perspective, Kenneth Smith argues that Durkheim's original concept must be sensitively revised and updated for its real relevance to come to the fore. This study puts forward three major adjustments to Durkheim's concept of the collective consciousness. It complicates the idea that the common and collective consciousness are interchangeable terms for the same phenomenon; if refutes the 'disciplinary' function of society as part of the concept of the common or collective consciousness; and it reveals the illusiveness of the supposed universal set of equally held ideas in a society, underlining the importance of geographical and generational variation. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

The concept of the collective consciousness of society

Durkheim on the collective consciousness in moral education

Durkheim's other writings on the concept of the collective consciousness

Collective consciousness, common consciousness, collective conscience or conscience collective?

The form of the collective consciousness

The conditions of the collective consciousness of society

The form that the collective consciousness(es) of society takes in a late-industrial society : macro-sociological or "general" characteristics

"The rule-of-law" : a case study

The state as the "organ" of the common consciousness

The form that the collective consciousness takes in early twenty-first century britain : micro-sociological, individual or small-scale factors

Durkheim on crime and punishment

Durkheim on crime and punishment in the division of labour in society

Durkheim on crime and punishment in the rules of sociological method

Interregnum on suicide

Durkheim's undeservedly famous "two laws of penal evolution" essay

Durkheim on crime and punishment in moral education (1902-03)

Paying a debt to society

Social fact or social phenomenon? : Durkheim's concept of the collective consciousness as a "social fact"

What does durkheim mean by the concept of the "social" and what does he mean by the concept of a "fact"?

Social facts or social phenomena?

Social facts and sociology

Social facts as living things

Some problems with Durkheim's concept of the common and collective

Interdependence and the division of labour in society

Durkheim on socialism

Professional ethics

Individualism, durkheim and the dreyfus affair

Conclusion

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781783082278

1783082275

9781783082285

1783082283

OCLC:

863789613