Author: Émile Durkheim
Synopsis
Durkheim asks how increasingly complex societies remain socially integrated. He distinguishes mechanical solidarity, based on similarity and shared beliefs, from organic solidarity, in which people become mutually dependent because they perform specialized roles.
Why It Matters to Sociology
The book established the division of labor as a social as well as economic phenomenon. It helped sociology explain modernization, occupational specialization, social cohesion, law, and the risks of anomie when social regulation fails to keep pace with change.