Sociology / Unit 1 Soc 0021 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Émile Durkheim
Captions available
The idea
Émile Durkheim established sociology as an academic discipline in France — the first university course in the subject (Bordeaux, 1887) and the journal L'Année sociologique (1898) — arguing that objective social facts can be studied scientifically.
In practice
A researcher treating a congregation's attendance as data works in his tradition.
Where people slip
Founding the discipline is not inventing it outright.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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