This essay examines Durkheim's functionalism, to argue that it cannot be adequately understood through later movements of structural functionalism, especially Parsonian functionalism. Concretely, for Durkheim, the function of the division of labour is to create solidarity but this runs into the problem of modern pathologies. More abstractly, his functionalism has two essential sets of components, and it is only through the relation between these that it is possible to grasp his argument and its full significance. One involves ideas of correspondence, tendency and action, so that function has to do with a set of 'living movements' and how it corresponds with social needs. The other involves a functionalism of mind, and above all centres round the idea of conscience as a set of epistemological, representative and practical functions. Durkheim's functionalism relates these two components in a concern with the power of critical reflection on existing patterns of society, and with how conscience releases the force of agency, to have a transformative potential on the ills of society.
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Functionalism of Mind and Functionalism of Society
The Concept of Conscience and Durkheim's Division of Social Labour
Susan Stedman Jones
In Durkheimian Studies
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2007
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 85–104 (20 total)
The Ladies of Charity in Carniola, 1848 to 1914
Irena Selišnik
This article discusses the timing and character of women's philanthropy in Carniola, now part of Slovenia, in the period from 1848 to 1914. Based on primary research, it explores the beginnings of women's work for the poor; the impact of religion, especially Catholicism, on women's involvement in charity; and finally the rise of women's secular social care. I argue that in Carniola, Catholic women's organizations largely filled the space that opened up for women's philanthropic initiatives. By the late nineteenth century, a re-Catholicization of modern industrial society took place, which particularly focused on women, as seen in the phenomenon of the feminization of the Catholic religion. Catholic women's associations started to proliferate; some of these associations were charity associations that introduced new principles to charity work.
Temporalization of Concepts
Reflections on the Concept of Unnati (Progress) in Hindi (1870–1900)
Mohinder Singh
This article analyzes the historical semantics of the concept of unnati in the nationalist discourse in Hindi between 1870 and 1900. The article first outlines the basic features of the Enlightenment concept of progress using Koselleck's analysis. It then goes on to discuss the place of the concept of progress in the colonial ideology of a “civilizing mission,“ and concludes by taking up the analysis of the usage of the term unnati in the nationalist discourse in North India.
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 51–71 (21 total)
The Invention of the Illustrated Press in France
Patricia Mainardi
, I introduce these early developments, when the English example inspired the establishment of the first great French illustrated periodicals, and social reformers in both countries established the illustrated press, the greatest tool of information
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 34–48 (15 total)
Catholicism and Social Policy
The Cases of Brazil and the United States
Luciano Aronne de Abreu and Nathalia Henrich
, he did have a lot in common with Viana. Let us now delve into a more specific analysis of John Ryan's ideas of social reform, his Catholic moral underpinnings, the definition of corporatism as a new model of social and political order based on the
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2023
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 7–25 (19 total)
The Evolution of the Welfare State
Social Rights and the Nationalization of Welfare in France, 1800-1947
Kristen Stromberg Childers
Timothy B. Smith, Creating the Welfare State in France, 1880-1940 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003).
Janet R. Horne, A Social Laboratory for Modern France: The Musée Social and the Rise of the Welfare State (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002).
Paul V. Dutton, Origins of the French Welfare State: The Struggle for Social Reform in France, 1914-1947 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2006
- Article Type:
- Review Article
- Pages:
- 129–138 (10 total)
Dichotomies Defied and the Revolutionary Implications of Religion Implied
Margaret C. Jacob
The epilogue surveys the preceding essays and finds common reference points. All eschew rigid dichotomies, all try to see enlightened thinkers as complicated, even at times confused. The search for the source of religion—some even found Freemasonry as helpful along the way—also captivated thinkers as diverse as Thomas Paine and Gotthold Lessing. The searching pointed to the obvious need for political and social reform, even for revolution.
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2014
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 108–116 (9 total)
The Whole World Revolves Around It
Sex Education and Sex Reform in First Republic Czech Print Media
Karla Huebner
This article explores attitudes towards sex and sexuality in First Republic Czechoslovakia (1918–1938), focusing on the urban Czech population. By looking at articles, advertisements and references to sex and sexuality in Czech periodicals from 1920 to 1935, it shows that inter-war Czechoslovaks were enthusiastic participants in closely linked discourses about hygiene, physical culture, sex education, birth control and sex reform, and provides evidence that Czech discourse about sex and sexuality was al- most always – apart from erotica and pornography – closely tied to discourse about health, hygiene and social reform. The article also shows how inter-war Czechoslovaks participated in the struggle for sexual minority rights. By exploring these discourses, this article helps place Czech ideas about sexuality within the larger framework of European ideas about sexuality, especially in relation to the German discourses with which Czech writers and activists were in constant dialogue.
The goddess Kumari at the Supreme Court
Divine kinship and secularism in Nepal
Chiara Letizia
In 2005 a human rights petition at the Supreme Court challenged the tradition of living goddesses called Kumaris and, in particular, that of the former royal Kumari, who lives a sequestered ritual life until puberty, and who used to bless and legitimate the king once a year. The case went on while Nepal overthrew its king and was declared a secular state in 2007. When the judgment was pronounced in 2008, the goddess was still at her post and now blessed the president. This court case is taken to illustrate the directions and form that Nepali secularism is taking. It reveals a distinctive form of secularism where the state is involved in supporting and reforming religion. The religious tradition here is seen as an asset for the state, worthy of preserving, provided it makes way for social reforms in tune with the times. Despite being reduced in court to a child capable of being deprived of her rights, the political power of the goddess remains intact and her role for the nation is recognized in the verdict; both human and divine, the Kumari has been acknowledged under the now secular legal regime.
Book Reviews
Linda L. Clark, Olga Gurova, Elena Bedreag, Daniela Koleva, Kristen Ghodsee, Roza Dimova, Evguenia Davidova, Maija Jäppinen, Tanja Petrović, Valentina Mitkova, Daniela Naydeva, Jelena Bakić, Irina Genova, Galina Goncharova, Michelle DenBeste, Katarina Loncarevic, Avital H. Bloch, Leda Papastefanaki, Olena Styazhkina, and Eszter Varsa
James C. Albisetti, Joyce Goodman, and Rebecca Rogers, eds., Girls' Secondary Education in the Western World: From the 18th to the 20th Century
Djurdja Bartlett, FashionEast: The Spectre That Haunted Socialism
Ioan Bolovan, Diana Covaci, Daniela Deteşan, Marius Eppel, and Elena Crinela Holom, eds., În căutarea fericirii. Viaţa familială în spaţiul românesc în secolele XVIII-XX (Looking for happiness. Family life in the Romanian territory from the eighteenth to the twentieth century)
Ulf Brunnbauer, “Die sozialistische Lebensweise“: Ideologie, Gesellschaft, Familie und Politik in Bulgarien (1944-1989) (“The socialist way of life“: Ideology, society, family and politics in Bulgaria [1944-1989])
Gerald Creed, Masquerade and Postsocialism: Ritual and Cultural Dispossession in Bulgaria
Krassimira Daskalova and Tatyana Kmetova, eds., Pol i Prehod, 1938-1958 (Gender and Transition, 1938-1958)
Evdoxios Doxiadis, The Shackles of Modernity: Women, Property, and the Transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek State (1750-1850)
Katalin Fábián, ed., Domestic Violence in Postcommunist States: Local Activism, National Policies, and Global Forces
Kristen Ghodsee, Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life after Communism
Liubov Krichevskaya, No Good without Reward: Selected Writings
Tomislav Z. Longinović, Vampire Nation: Violence as Cultural Imaginary
Ivana Panteli´, Partizanke kao građanke: društvena emancipacija partizanki u Srbiji, 1945-1953 (Female partisans as citizens: Social emancipation of female partisans in Serbia, 1945-1953)
Bojana Pejić, ERSTE Foundation and Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, eds., Gender Check: A Reader. Art and Theory in Eastern Europe
Christian Promitzer, Sevasti Trubeta, and Marius Turda, eds., Health, Hygiene and Eugenics in Southeastern Europe to 1945
Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild, Equality and Revolution: Women's Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905-1917 Reviewed by Michelle DenBeste
Giulia Sissa, Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World
Lidija Stojanovik-Lafazanovska and Ermis Lafanovski, The Exodus of the Macedonians from Greece: Women's Narratives about WWII and Their Exodus
Lex Heerma van Voss, Els Hiemstra-Kuperus, and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, eds., The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650-2000
Galina I. Yermolenko, ed., Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture
Susan Zimmermann, Divide, Provide, and Rule: An Integrative History of Poverty Policy, Social Policy, and Social Reform in Hungary under the Habsburg Monarchy