Chapter Émile Durkheim: il lavoro dell’ideale

Abstract

To grasp the originality of Durkheimian reflection on labor, it is important to emphasize how it revolves around two substantive aspects: professional groups, understood as the locus of the social reorganization of labor; and the person, understood as the modern ideal whose content is defined in light of the transformation of the contractual institution. This twofold reflection on labor, results in a sociological critique of what Durkheim qualifies as the two main pathological forms of the modern division of labor: the "anomic division" and the "coercive division" of labor. Preliminarily, in order to better situate the reasons for the centrality of both of these aspects, and to better identify the critical aim of Durkheim's sociology, it seems important to understand his reflection on the transformations of power in modern societies and the consequences this reflection has on his conception of the State.