Table Of ContentRoutledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
THE POLITICAL DURKHEIM
SOCIOLOGY, SOCIALISM, LEGACIES
Matt Dawson
The Political Durkheim
This book presents Durkheim as an important political sociologist, inspired
by and advocating socialism. Through a series of studies, it argues that
Durkheim’s normative vision, which can be called libertarian socialism,
shaped his sociological critique and search for alternatives. With attention
to the value of this political sociology as a means of understanding our
contemporary world, the author asks us to look again at Durkheim. While
Durkheim’s legacy has often emphasised the supposed conservative elements
and stability advocated in his thought, we can point to a different legacy,
one of a radical sociology. In dialogue with the decolonial critique, this
volume also asks ‘was Durkheim white?’ and in doing so shows how, as a
Jew, he experienced significant racialisation in his lifetime. A new reading
and a vital image of a ‘political Durkheim’, The Political Durkheim will
appeal to scholars and students with interests in Durkheim, social theory
and political sociology.
Matt Dawson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of
Glasgow, UK, and the author of Social Theory for Alternative Societies
and Late Modernity, Individualization and Socialism: An Associational
Critique of Neoliberalism.
Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
This series explores core issues in political philosophy and social theory.
Addressing theoretical subjects of both historical and contemporary relevance,
the series has broad appeal across the social sciences. Contributions include new
studies of major thinkers, key debates and critical concepts.
Understanding Recognition
Conceptual and Empirical Studies
Piotr Kulas, Andrzej Waśkiewicz and Stanisław Krawczyk
Multiculturalism and the Nation in Germany
A Study in Moral Conflict
Paul Carls
Connecting Practices
Large Topics in Society and Social Theory
Elizabeth Shove
Marx, Engels and the Philosophy of Science
David Bedford and Thomas Workman
Bourdieu’s Philosophy and Sociology of Science
A Critical Appraisal
Kyung-Man Kim
Nation and State in Max Weber
Politics as Sociology
Jack Barbalet
The Political Durkheim
Sociology, Socialism, Legacies
Matt Dawson
Utopia without Ideology
Ambrogio Santambrogio
The Political Durkheim
Sociology, Socialism, Legacies
Matt Dawson
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 Matt Dawson
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been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Dawson, Matt, 1983-author.
Title: The political Durkheim: critical sociology, socialism, legacies /
Matt Dawson.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY:
Routledge, 2023.
| Series: Routledge studies in social and political thought | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022047112 | ISBN 9780367894436 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032451725 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003019206 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Durkheim, Émile, 1858-1917. |
Sociologists--France--Biography. | Sociology--Political aspects--
France.
Classification: LCC HM479.D87 D39 2023 | DDC 301.092 [B]--dc23/
eng/20221007
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022047112
ISBN: 978-0-367-89443-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-45172-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01920-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003019206
Typeset in Times New Roman
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: In Defence of the Political Durkheim 1
PART I
Socialism 9
1 Durkheim’s Alternative: Curing the Malaise 11
2 Individualism Through Association: The Libertarian
Socialism of Émile Durkheim and G.D.H. Cole 29
3 ‘An Army of Civil Servants’: Max Weber and Émile
Durkheim on Socialism 48
PART II
Politics 67
4 Our COVID Malaise: The Failed Mission of Justice,
Pseudo-Democracy and a Politics of the Future after
the Pandemic 69
5 Social Solidarity, Penal Evolution and Probation
(with Fergus McNeill) 86
6 ‘An Apotheosis of Well-Being’: Durkheim on Austerity
and Double-Dip Recessions 101
vi Contents
PART III
Legacies 117
7 A Salute to the Exegetical Giddens: Durkheim Scholar 119
8 Morality as Rebellion: Towards a Partial
Reconciliation of Bauman and Durkheim 130
9 The Elementary Forms of Sociological Knowledge:
Durkheim in British Sociology Textbooks 148
Postscript: Was Durkheim White? Anti-Semitism
and the Dangers of Binary Racialised Readings
of the Canon 162
Notes 180
References 188
Index 208
Acknowledgements
I started this book prior to a period of Head of Department in Sociology at
the University of Glasgow and only finished it upon completion of my term
(the fact my term overlapped with COVID is probably an additional factor
in why it took me so long). So, my first thanks go to the colleagues I worked
with in Sociology for those three years. It is a wonderful department to have
been head of. Thanks also to the university for a period of study leave after
the headship which allowed me to complete the work.
I would also like to thank Routledge for agreeing to publish this volume,
especially Neil Jordan who commissioned it, along with Alice Salt, and later
Gemma Rogers, who assisted me throughout the writing process.
Thanks also to colleagues and friends who looked at draft versions of the
chapters in this volume. Given they were written over a number of years, my
best memory is that this would include (sorry if I forget anyone!): Luke
Martell, Charles Masquelier, Kieran Durkin, Andy Smith and Satnam
Virdee. More generally, given these pieces were written over a long period, I
want to thank everyone, most notably friends along with Roddy and my dad
and mum who supported me throughout that period.
As an English speaker writing a book on a French writer, I would like to
take this opportunity to offer a huge thanks to the number of people involved
in translating Durkheim’s work. Without your labours, a significant amount
of knowledge would have been unavailable to me and many others.
Translation is not given the credit it deserves in academia, so I hope this
small thank you can serve as some recognition of your efforts.
But, of course, my biggest thanks go to Catherine. Not only did she read
some of this book and provided valuable feedback but also supported me
throughout the headship and kept reminding me that there would indeed be
a time when I could return to writing and thinking about Durkheim. She
was right. But, returning to Durkheim was only as enjoyable as it was since I
got to share the time with her.
Some of the essays in this book have already been published. Chapter 1
originally appeared in my book Social Theory for Alternative Societies, 2016,
Palgrave, reproduced with permission of Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Chapter 3
originally appeared in Journal of Historical Sociology, 2016, 29:4, 525–549,
viii Acknowledgements
reprinted by permission of Wiley. Chapter 5 originally appeared in British
Journal of Criminology, 2014, 54:5, 892–907, reprinted by permission of Oxford
University Press. My thanks also go to my co-author Fergus McNeill for his
agreement to republish this essay in this collection (as well as for originally
suggesting the idea for the piece). Chapter 6 originally appeared in Journal of
Classical Sociology, 2015, 15:4, 321–336, reprinted by permission of SAGE
Publications. Chapter 7 is an expanded and revised version of a piece which
originally appeared online as part of the Sociological Review’s ‘Past and
Present’ series. My thanks go to the editors of Sociological Review for
permission to republish the piece in an expanded version. Chapter 8
originally appeared in Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 2017, 18:3,
255–273, reprinted by permission of Taylor and Francis. For all of the
above – with the exception of Chapter 7 – the only changes to material have
been stylistic, made to ensure consistency and coherence across the book.
Material from the G.D.H. Cole archives quoted in Chapter 2 is
reproduced with the kind permission of the Warden and Fellows of
Nuffield College, Oxford. My thanks go to the staff at Nuffield College
Library for facilitating access to the archive.
Introduction: In Defence of the
Political Durkheim
In 2005, Cambridge University Press published their companion to Émile
Durkheim. Edited by Jeffrey Alexander and Philip Smith (2005), this was a
prestigious volume, with contributions from notable writers including
Randall Collins, Karen Fields, Robert Bellah, Edward Tiryakian, David
Grusky and Zygmunt Bauman among others. In their introduction, Smith
and Alexander (2005) make clear they are using the opportunity of the
volume to present a particular image of Durkheim. Indeed, they refer to the
text as ‘war of position’ in a ‘powerful intellectual drama’ concerning how
we should interpret his work (Smith and Alexander 2005:20). In this war,
they see the battle lines being drawn on two fronts. One of these concerns
the different ‘Durkheims’, in which they suggest we can identify con-
servative, structuralist, radical and cultural Durkheims. At times, different
combinations of these theorists have been dominant in the field, but central
to Smith and Alexander’s argument is that the cultural Durkheim was a
‘well-kept secret’, with his contribution unjustly neglected (Smith and
Alexander 2005:12). The second battle line concerns way of categorising
Durkheim’s thought. To be exact, through the possibility of a ‘break’ or
‘shift’ at the turn of the 20th century as Durkheim increasingly focused on
religion and its associated concerns with ritual and the cultural. As
Alexander puts it in his contribution to the volume ‘after 1896, Durkheim
felt compelled to revise every strand of his sociological theory’ (Alexander
2005:151). This leads Smith and Alexander (2005:13) to claim that the no-
tion of there being 2 Durkheims, an early and a late, has become ‘increas-
ingly hegemonic’ in Durkheim studies.
To this point, Smith and Alexander’s claims are not entirely controversial.
There have indeed been many different Durkheims and often these have
been shaped by fundamentally political questions of whether Durkheim was
a ‘conservative’ or ‘radical’. Moreover, while the suggestion of there being
some sort of shift in Durkheim’s key assumptions and epistemology is not
entirely accepted (see Giddens (1978) for a dissenting position), it is accurate
to say there was some shift in focus, which in some cases has been linked to a
broader shift in how Durkheim’s sociology can be understood (see Steiner
(2011) for a paradigmatic case).
DOI: 10.4324/9781003019206-1
