Sociology in the Nineteenth Century

Sociology, as a field of study, emerged in early nineteenth-century Europe as European society and politics were changing as a result of revolution, warfare, reform, industrialization, and urbanization. Many of sociology's main subjects and tenets were shaped by these forces, as can be seen in the work of such early sociologists as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Toward the end of the century, the field experienced other major changes as it spread from Europe to North America and was institutionalized in American universities.

Keywords Comte, Auguste; Durkheim, Emile; Industrial Era; Industrial Revolution; Marx, Karl; Positivism; Simmel, Georg; Society; Spencer, Herbert; Weber, Max

Sociology in the Nineteenth Century

Overview

Sociology, as a field of study, emerged in early nineteenth-century Europe as European society and politics were changing as a result of revolution, warfare, reform, industrialization, and urbanization. In response to the changes in the sociopolitical climate, European scholars, including August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber, developed theories and principles to examine and understand society, in some instances with the hope of restoring order to it. This diverse body of theories and principles became the foundation for the modern discipline of sociology (Turner, 1990).

Understanding the history of nineteenth-century sociology, including the sociopolitical influences and main actors, is vital background for all those interested in sociology as well as social theory as a whole. This article explains the history of nineteenth-century sociology in three parts:

• An overview of the social and political changes that occurred in Europe during the nineteenth century. This section will describe how the forces of industrialization and urbanization influenced sociology's development.

• A description of the ways in which European intellectuals—in particular, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber—responded to nineteenth-century sociopolitical events and how their works defined the field of sociology.

• A discussion of the changes that occurred in the field of sociology over the course of the nineteenth century—in particular, the changes that occurred as sociological theory spread from Europe to America at the end of the century.

Europe in the Nineteenth Century

The social, intellectual, and political conditions of nineteenth-century Europe had a strong influence on early sociological theory. The European industrial era, which spanned from approximately 1750 to 1900, was characterized by the replacement of manual labor with industrialized and mechanized labor and the adoption of the factory system of production. The industrial era included the period of the Industrial Revolution and the resulting rise of capitalism. The Industrial Revolution refers to the technical, cultural, and social changes that occurred in the Western world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The movement, which began gathering force in approximately 1760 and ended around 1830, started in Britain and had spread to Europe and North America by the early nineteenth century. It was driven by technological innovation as industry and trade eclipsed farming and agriculture as regional sources of income. Across Europe, it promulgated the rise of capitalism, an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned (Ahmad, 1997).

The Industrial Revolution brought with it great social change as it created new types and conceptions of employment, time, scale, landscape, property, and familial and community relationships. Social, gender and class hierarchies, family units, gender relations, immigrants' roles in society, and the conception of childhood were all affected. The revolution, with its increased need for workers, created new working, middle, and consumer classes. However, the factory system of production (as seen, for example, in textile mills) also reinforced and maintained class relations by establishing a hierarchical and supervised workforce (Mellor, 2003). By separating the place of production from the domestic setting, the factory system created a divide between work and home life, too. The family unit and gender roles changed during the Industrial Revolution largely as a result of shifts in types of employment available for both men and women. They no longer labored in households or on farms, but inside factories. In some industries, women and children worked alongside men (Abelson, 1995).

The sociopolitical changes that occurred during the industrial era in Europe were not wholly accepted across society. Sectors of society protested and rebelled. For example, the Luddites, led by General Ned Ludd, rejected the fast pace of social change and advocated a slower, natural pace and lifestyle. In 1811, they organized English craftsmen to riot and protest against the changes created by the Industrial Revolution (Kirkpatrick, 1999). In addition, the nineteenth century saw a significant and growing protest against child labor. The roots of sociology as a tool for social reform can be traced back to these early signs of social conscience and social protest.

Further Insights

Nineteenth-Century Intellectuals & Their Influence on Sociology

European intellectuals such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber developed the basic tenets of sociology to help explain the sociopolitical changes they saw around them and determine whether they were harmful or beneficial to society (D'Antonio, 1992). These nineteenth-century intellectuals would later become known as the classical theorists and founders of sociology. Though they all began their work in fields as diverse as religion, ethics, philosophy, law, and economics, over time, their ideas were grouped together to become a discrete field called sociology.

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte (1798–1857), a French philosopher, is widely known as the "father of sociology." Wising to use science to rationalize and explain the social phenomena he saw occurring in France at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Comte coined to term "sociology" to describe his scientific approach to the study of society, seeing the field as a branch of the natural sciences, or a type of social physics. He believed society progressed through three stages: theological, metaphysical, and positive. According to Comte, the positive, or scientific stage, during which the natural laws governing social phenomena would be uncovered, could and would restore order to society.

Comte developed the philosophy of positivism to this end of understanding the social world through scientific approach and scientific reason. Doubtful that metaphysical speculation can yield useful knowledge, positivism seeks to understand phenomena by empirically observing and describing them, asking not "why" a phenomenon occurs, but simply "how." Comte believed that by understanding the underlying principles of the scientific process, people could achieve positive social change.

During Comte's lifetime, France was experiencing the social protest, unrest, and disorder caused by the destruction of the ancien regime and the aftermath of the French Revolution. Comte believed his historical epoch was characterized by a crisis in community values and a destructive spread of individualism. According to him, a sociopolitical system founded on positivism had the potential to restore social consensus and order. Comte believed that positivism in France had the potential to revolutionize and regenerate French society (Ferrarotti, 1990).

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), an English sociologist and philosopher, believing that societies moved from simplicity to complexity, developed the analogy of society as an organism, or an independently functioning living thing. According to Spencer, society, like an organism, represents a system with structures and functions as well as a certain level of evolutionary advancement based on its structural form. Spencer, a structural functionalist, believed that social structures function to meet the needs of society.

Spencer is perhaps best known for his theory of social Darwinism and the related phrase "survival of the fittest," which argued that only the fittest members of society survive and succeed. In addition, Spencer developed a theory of the superorganic, or the elements of society that influence and explain group behavior, which later influenced Durkheim's theory of collective conscience. Spencer published three volumes of work: Principles of Sociology (1896), Descriptive Sociology (1873–81) and The Study of Sociology (1873). In Principles of Sociology, a 2,240-page tome, he attempted to explain in a scientific manner the relations, coexistence, and sequence among social phenomena. His scientific approach to the study of social phenomena and society laid the groundwork for the field anthropology as well as sociology (Carneiro & Perrin, 2003).

Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel (1858–1918), a German sociologist, was concerned with social structure and sociability. He researched and wrote extensively about the nature of association, culture, social structure, the city, and the economy. His work was a major influence on Durkheim and Weber as well as nineteenth-century European intellectual life as a whole. Of particular relevance to the nineteenth century was his work on the metropolis, which reflected the period's urbanizing landscape. During this time, the metropolis or city was characterized by a division of labor and individuality or individual freedom. Simmel's ability to understand and analyze individual action within the context of social structures made his work relevant and interesting throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His most well-known works are The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) and The Philosophy of Money (1907) (Nooteboom, 2006).

Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818–1883), a German philosopher and economist, was one of the first scholars to identify society as a system of social relationships and economics, capitalism, and production as major social forces. Marx believed the history of human society was primarily shaped by economic conflict between owners and laborers and argued that the emerging system of capitalism was creating societies in which the increased value of the material world devalued people and society. He also studied processes of worker alienation and objectification and developed a theory of worker alienation that argued that workers experience a lack of control and self-realization in the labor process. As a result, he worked to determine how the disenfranchised could create social change to improve their social and financial situations, finally concluding that social change could only occur through challenges to the power of the dominant classes (Yuill, 2005).

Marx's theories of society were influenced by social revolutions and challenges to the established social order initiated by lower classes—namely, the French Revolution. His analysis of specific political events and rebellions in France illustrates the way in which nineteenth century sociology developed in response to the events and happenings of the day (Hayes, 1993).

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim (1855–1917), a protégé of Comte, was a French sociologist concerned with the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, as well as issues of solidarity and social cohesion. According to Durkheim, it is people's social roles, or functions, that hold society together. He developed the theories of organic solidarity (the bonding of a population of people through their employment, labor, and social roles) and mechanical solidarity (the bonding of a small group of people around similar interests, values, and beliefs). Both types of solidarity, he believed, promote social cohesion and collective conscience.

Over the course of his life, Durkheim moved from a macro focus on structural processes to a micro focus on social, psychological, and interpersonal processes, such as copresence, ritual, interaction, and emotional arousal. To learn how individuals related to society, he studied the social structure, societal norms, laws, communities, groups, and social roles of French society. Durkheim may be most famous for his research on the suicide rates among certain social groups, which illustrated his interest in the power of social cohesion, as well as his commitment to quantitative research methods.

Durkheim's theories of cultural differentiation and structural differentiation influenced nineteenth-century sociology by explaining how cultural and social structures could foster social cohesion and divisiveness. Cultural differentiation refers to the idea that the degree of consensus over cognitive orientations and cultural codes among the members of a population is related to their interpersonal interaction, level of emotional arousal, and rate of ritual performance. Structural differentiation, a term borrowed from Spencer, refers to the idea that the degree of differentiation among a population is related to the level of competition among these actors, the rate of growth in this population, the extent of the ecological concentration of this population, and the rate of population mobility (Turner, 1990).

Max Weber

Max Weber (1864–1920), a German politician, historian, economist, and sociologist who dedicated a large part of his work to the study of religion, is considered one of the founders of sociology. Weber, a leader in social theory, was a proponent of the interpretive method of sociological study, which entailed studying the meanings people attach to their social environments and daily lives. Out of concern for the "problem of meaning," he worked to understand how actors, or individuals in society, created meaning for themselves and others.

During the nineteenth century, Germany, Weber's country of birth, underwent extreme sociopolitical change as it transitioned from separate states into a unified nation state. The political turmoil combined with the urbanization, reform, and industrialization that spread across Europe made Germany rich ground for sociological investigation and analyses. Weber chose to study authority and power in German organizations as a means of understanding the social tensions he saw around him. His classical theory of organization focused on organizational bureaucracy. He established a set of rules that defined both how an organization should function and who should be a part of the organization. Weber's ideal bureaucracy was an organization characterized by hierarchy of authority, impersonality, written rules of conduct, promotion based on achievement, specialized division of labor, and efficiency. Weber warned his country that the owners and bosses of bureaucratic organizations, who were largely self-appointed leaders with great social, political, and economic power, could and would control their workers' quality of life.

In addition to his work on authority and power in organizations, Weber made significant contribution to the field of rural sociology. He studied rural populations and contemporary rural problems, such as labor-landowner relations and the divide between industrial and agricultural workers, to document and understand the change brought about by industrialization and urbanization. Weber's most famous work is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–5) (Munters, 1972).

Discourse

A Century of Change

The field of sociology changed significantly over the course of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the century, sociology was a collection of loosely grouped scientific principles developed by European thinkers and intellectuals. Early European sociologists were concerned with the systematic study of patterns of social behavior and the rapid social change created by industrialization and modernization. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, sociology was an established, international field of study, as was affirmed by the founding of the International Institute of Sociology in 1893. Sociology had also distinguished itself from the closely related field of anthropology.

Early nineteenth-century European sociology existed largely outside of colleges and universities and was qualitative, philosophical, and epistemological in nature. The European founders of sociology, such as Comte, were not affiliated with universities. It was not until 1895 that Europe's first sociology department was established by Emile Durkheim at the University of Bordeaux.

In contrast, once sociology reached North America, it was quickly institutionalized and incorporated into academic departments (Sorokin, 1929). The field became a recognized academic disciple in the late 1890s when American universities such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University established their influential sociology departments. The University of Chicago's Chicago School of Sociology focused on fieldwork and the sociology of urban regions and, in 1895, began publishing the American Journal of Sociology . Meanwhile, Columbia University focused on developing quantitative and statistical sociology in the United States.

The spread of sociological theory and principles from Europe to North America at the end of the nineteenth century enriched and strengthened the field. European sociology was characterized by a collective orientation that focused on whole classes and social groups. In contrast, American sociology was characterized by individualism and a focus on the individual's behavior. The American concern with the individual facilitated the collection of statistical data and quantitative analysis. By the early twentieth century, social reformers were using sociological perspectives and applied research methods to promote social change and social justice.

Conclusion

The field of sociology developed in response to the nineteenth-century European sociopolitical climate, which was characterized by revolution, warfare, reform, industrialization, and urbanization. The key contributors to early sociology, such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, developed their sociological theories and principles in response to changes that were, in large part, brought about the industrial era. The force of the Industrial Revolution in Europe influenced the development of sociology's main concerns, including social cohesion, organization, power, authority, and social identity.

Terms & Concepts

Comte, Auguste: A French philosopher, known as the "father of sociology," who first used the term sociology to mean a natural science of society.

Durkheim, Emile: A French sociologist concerned with the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, as well as issues of solidarity and social cohesion.

Industrial Era: A period in the Western history characterized by the large-scale replacement of manual labor with industrialized and mechanized labor.

Industrial Revolution: The technical, cultural, and social changes that occurred in the Western world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Marx, Karl: A German philosopher and economist who was one of the first scholars to identify society as a system of social relationships.

Positivism: An approach to science, developed by Auguste Comte, that seeks to understand phenomena by empirically observing and describing them, asking not "why" a phenomenon occurs, but simply "how." Comte hoped that such an approach would enable a scientific understanding of the social world.

Simmel, Georg: A German sociologist who studied social structure and sociability.

Society: A group of individuals united by values, norms, culture, or organizational affiliation.

Spencer, Herbert: An English sociologist and philosopher who developed the theory of social Darwinism and coined the related phrase "survival of the fittest," which argued that only the fittest members of society survive and succeed.

Weber, Max: A German politician, historian, economist, and sociologist who studied religion, bureaucracy, and rural populations. He is considered one of the founders of sociology.

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Ferrarotti, F. (1999). The social character of science: The lessons of positivism. International Journal of Politics, Culture & Society, 12 , 535–553. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10945373&site=ehost-live

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Munters, Q. (1972). Max Weber as rural sociologist. Sociologia Ruralis, 12 , 129–147. Retrieved April 4, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10193035&site=ehost-live

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Suggested Reading

Calhoun, C. (1983). Industrialization and social radicalism: British and French workers' movements and the mid-nineteenth century crisis. Theory & Society, 12 , 485–504. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10745920&site=ehost-live

Ferrari, V., & Ronfani, P. (2001). A deeply rooted scientific discipline: Origins and development of sociology of law in Italy. American Sociologist, 32 , 61–77. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=5376270&site=ehost-live

Kivisto, P. (1987). Sociology as a vocation: A Weberian analysis of the origins and subsequent development of American sociology. British Journal of Sociology, 38 , 112–120. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6781673&site=ehost-live

Renwick, C. (2012).British sociology’s lost biological roots: A history of futures past. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Turner, J. H. (2013). Theoretical sociology: 1830 to the present. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wallerstein, I. (2003). Anthropology, sociology, and other dubious disciplines. Current Anthropology, 44 , 453–465. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11026931&site=ehost-live