about

"Only in society do superiors, subordinates, and equals exist." (Durkheim, É. 1995 (1912). p. 149)

Émile Durkheim was the first Professor of Sociology of Education. He is regarded as one of the 'founding fathers' of sociology (others include Karl Marx, Max Weber, and George Herbert Mead, (but the list varies depending on whom and where you read). Arguably Durheim's most important works is The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. For Durkheim, ritual is the glue that holds society together. The Elementary Forms is an anthropological work based Australian Aboriginal people, but drawing on secondary sources rather than original fieldwork. Erving Goffman (1990 (1956)) introduced his 'dramaturgical' approach to identity: individuals enact their identities in public, 'front stage' performances that contrast with their 'back stage' identities where they can step out of character, so to speak.

Randall Collins (2014) is influenced by Durkheim and by Goffman in his 'micro-sociology' that constitutes the 'situation' rather than the individual as the unit of analysis, Individuals are 'entrained' to behave according to the situation, their motivation being the optimising of 'emotional energy', which is generated in social rituals: from smoking at school behind the bike sheds, to romantic liaisons, to audiencing a premier league football game. Collins maintains that bodily copresence is necessary in order to generate the necessary emotional energy, which would suggest that technologically mediated interactions, via the phone or internet, for example, would be less effective. Lars Johannessen (2023, however, challenges this limitation, attributing greater emotional eneergy potential to virtual ritual encounters.

If you have the time and energy, I recommend the work by Roy Rappaport on the anthropology of religion and, indeed on Mary Douglas's literary analysis of the Books of `Leviticus and Numbers from the pentateuch (first five books of the Bible, the Jewish Torah). As Rappaport explains, you do not need to be a believer to engage in religious ritual. In an online interview, Mary Douglas accuses her interviewer of naivety for expressing surprie that she, an anthhropologist, declares herself to be a Roman Catholic. (See Dowling 2024)

preliminary reading

Dowling, P. C. (2024). "SAM: A language for education." Qeios. doi:10.32388/FTG9U1.2. Particularly the text from the introduction of Figure 4

references

Collins, R. (2014). Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Collins, R. (2020). Charisma: Micro-sociology of power and influence. New York, Routledge.

Douglas, M. (1993). In the Wilderness: The doctrine of defilement in the book of numbers. Oxford. Oxford University Press.

Douglas, M. (1996). Natural Symbols: Explorations in cosmology. London, Routledge.

Durkheim, É. (1995). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York, The Free Press.

Goffman, E. (1990). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Goffman, E. (2017, (1967)). Interaction Ritual; Essays in face-to-face behavior. London, Routledge.

Rappaport, R. A. (1999). Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge, CUP.

Activity

Bernstein starts with the idea that there are two basic categories of speech, distinguishable both linguistically and sociologically . The first arises in a small - scale , very local social situation in which the speakers all have access to the same fundamental assumptions; in this category every utterance is pressed into service to affirm the social order . Speech in this case exercises a solidarity - maintaining function closely comparable to religion as Durkheim saw it functioning in primitive society . The second category of speech distinguished by Bernstein is employed in social situations where the speakers do not accept or necessarily know one another's fundamental assumptions . Speech has then the primary function of making explicit unique individual perceptions , and bridging different initial assumptions . The two categories of speech arise in social systems which correspond to those which Durkheim indicated as governed by mechanical and organic solidarity.

Page 76 · Location 1084

The restricted code is deeply enmeshed in the immediate social structure, utterances have a double purpose : they convey information, yes , but they also express the social structure, embellish and reinforce it . The second function is the dominant one, whereas the elaborated code emerges as a form of speech which is progressively more and more free of the second function . Its primary function is to organize thought processes , distinguish and combine ideas . In its more extreme , elaborate form it is so much disengaged from the normal social structure that it may even come to dominate the latter and require the social group to be structured around the speech , as in the case of a university lecture.

Page 92 · Location 1299

... meanwhile, note what the Bernstein effect amounts to. As a result of definable pressures on home and school there is an increasing tendency to rear children by personal , elaborated speech code methods. This produces a child acutely sensitive to the feelings of others, and interested in his own internal states. It follows that such an education will predispose a person to ethical preoccupations, for while it opens up his vocabulary of feeling it also denies him any sense of pattern in his social life. He must therefore look for some justification of his existence outside the performance of set rules. He can only find it in good works on behalf of humanity in general or in personal success, or both . Hence the drive towards a purely ethical religion.
Page 110 · Location 1560

Those who despise ritual, even at its most magical , are cherishing in the name of reason a very irrational concept of communication.

Page 111 · Location 1577

These very people , who prefer unstructured intimacy in their social relations, defeat their wish for communication without words. For only a ritual structure makes possible a wordless channel of communication that is not entirely incoherent.

Tuesday 4th June 2024 11:00-13:00 BST

Theoretical Sensitivity: inspired by Émile Durkheim & Erving Goffman

preliminary reading

references

Activity


	Tuesday 4th June 2024 11:00-13:00 BST Theoretical Sensitivity: inspired by Émile Durkheim & Erving Goffman "Only in society do superiors, subordinates, and equals exist." (Durkheim, É. 1995 (1912). p. 149) Émile Durkheim was the first Professor of Sociology of Education. He is regarded as one of the 'founding fathers' of sociology (others include Karl Marx, Max Weber, and George Herbert Mead, (but the list varies depending on whom and where you read). Arguably Durheim's most important works is The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. For Durkheim, ritual is the glue that holds society together. The Elementary Forms is an anthropological work based Australian Aboriginal people, but drawing on secondary sources rather than original fieldwork. Erving Goffman (1990 (1956)) introduced his 'dramaturgical' approach to identity: individuals enact their identities in public, 'front stage' performances that contrast with their 'back stage' identities where they can step out of character, so to speak. Randall Collins (2014) is influenced by Durkheim and by Goffman in his 'micro-sociology' that constitutes the 'situation' rather than the individual as the unit of analysis, Individuals are 'entrained' to behave according to the situation, their motivation being the optimising of 'emotional energy', which is generated in social rituals: from smoking at school behind the bike sheds, to romantic liaisons, to audiencing a premier league football game. Collins maintains that bodily copresence is necessary in order to generate the necessary emotional energy, which would suggest that technologically mediated interactions, via the phone or internet, for example, would be less effective. Lars Johannessen (2023, however, challenges this limitation, attributing greater emotional eneergy potential to virtual ritual encounters. If you have the time and energy, I recommend the work by Roy Rappaport on the anthropology of religion and, indeed on Mary Douglas's literary analysis of the Books of `Leviticus and Numbers from the pentateuch (first five books of the Bible, the Jewish Torah). As Rappaport explains, you do not need to be a believer to engage in religious ritual. In an online interview, Mary Douglas accuses her interviewer of naivety for expressing surprie that she, an anthhropologist, declares herself to be a Roman Catholic. (See Dowling 2024) preliminary reading Johannessen, L. E. F. (2023). "Interaction Rituals and Technology: A review essay." Poetics. 98. pp. 1-14. Dowling, P. C. (2024). "SAM: A language for education." Qeios. doi:10.32388/FTG9U1.2. Particularly the text from the introduction of Figure 4 Review the estracts below from Mary Douglas's Natural Symbols effervescence references Collins, R. (2014). Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Collins, R. (2020). Charisma: Micro-sociology of power and influence. New York, Routledge. Douglas, M. (1993). In the Wilderness: The doctrine of defilement in the book of numbers. Oxford. Oxford University Press. Douglas, M. (1996). Natural Symbols: Explorations in cosmology. London, Routledge. Douglas, M. ( 2001). Leviticus as Literature. Oxford University Press. Durkheim, É. (1995). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York, The Free Press. Goffman, E. (1990). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth, Penguin. Goffman, E. (2017, (1967)). Interaction Ritual; Essays in face-to-face behavior. London, Routledge. Rappaport, R. A. (1999). Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge, CUP. Activity Review the following are estract from Douglas (1996, Kindle edition) Page 15 · Location 188 Durkheim proposed to speak only about social facts , but he based his whole theory of the Sacred on two psychological factors . One was emotional effervescence , the idea that rituals rouse violent , ecstatic feelings , like crowd hysteria , which convince the worshipper of the reality of a power greater than and beyond the self . The other was the emotion of outrage , the idea of sacred contagion and consequent dangers to the community unleashed by breach of cherished norms . Putting them together he produced a theory of social solidarity : first the loosely associated crowd recognizes its unity in ritually aroused emotions , and then it proceeds to harness the whole universe in an intellectual drive to attribute sacred contagion to individual deviation from its norms. Page 74 · Location 1062 Bernstein starts with the idea that there are two basic categories of speech, distinguishable both linguistically and sociologically . The first arises in a small - scale , very local social situation in which the speakers all have access to the same fundamental assumptions; in this category every utterance is pressed into service to affirm the social order . Speech in this case exercises a solidarity - maintaining function closely comparable to religion as Durkheim saw it functioning in primitive society . The second category of speech distinguished by Bernstein is employed in social situations where the speakers do not accept or necessarily know one another's fundamental assumptions . Speech has then the primary function of making explicit unique individual perceptions , and bridging different initial assumptions . The two categories of speech arise in social systems which correspond to those which Durkheim indicated as governed by mechanical and organic solidarity. Page 76 · Location 1084 The restricted code is deeply enmeshed in the immediate social structure, utterances have a double purpose : they convey information, yes , but they also express the social structure, embellish and reinforce it . The second function is the dominant one, whereas the elaborated code emerges as a form of speech which is progressively more and more free of the second function . Its primary function is to organize thought processes , distinguish and combine ideas . In its more extreme , elaborate form it is so much disengaged from the normal social structure that it may even come to dominate the latter and require the social group to be structured around the speech , as in the case of a university lecture. Page 92 · Location 1299 ... meanwhile, note what the Bernstein effect amounts to. As a result of definable pressures on home and school there is an increasing tendency to rear children by personal , elaborated speech code methods. This produces a child acutely sensitive to the feelings of others, and interested in his own internal states. It follows that such an education will predispose a person to ethical preoccupations, for while it opens up his vocabulary of feeling it also denies him any sense of pattern in his social life. He must therefore look for some justification of his existence outside the performance of set rules. He can only find it in good works on behalf of humanity in general or in personal success, or both . Hence the drive towards a purely ethical religion. Page 110 · Location 1560 Those who despise ritual, even at its most magical , are cherishing in the name of reason a very irrational concept of communication. Page 111 · Location 1577 These very people , who prefer unstructured intimacy in their social relations, defeat their wish for communication without words. For only a ritual structure makes possible a wordless channel of communication that is not entirely incoherent.