Representation and periodization of Durkheim’s life and work

Émile Durkheim's life and work is presented in 22 lines in the Petit Robert (dictionary of proper names). It contains a summary of his sociological approach (including positivism, the specificity of social facts, a sociology with a naturalist and mechanist character, and the study of “collective representation”), and a list of his books with very short comments (e.g. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), a text that reveals his interest in ethnography). This type of information is significant for those studying Durkheim; particularly those descriptions that place the sociologist and his work in France, where he has become - in many ways - a cult object. On one tablet in Bordeaux, where Durkheim taught for many years, it has been written: “Émile Durkheim, Founder of Sociology.” No more, no less.

A well-known classical sociologist in the English academic world, Émile Durkheim has become the object of a number of commentaries and theoretical interpretations. For instance, 6.3 percent of the 8,353 articles published in the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review between 1895 and 1992 quote his texts. This is as many as Weber, the most influential sociologist of the era who was quoted in 6.5 percent of the articles during the same period. As Paul Vogt summarized, “[t]he knowledge of Durkheim and of his books is a full part of the definition of what a sociologist is in America” (1993: 227).