Revision summary
Durkheim: specialisation shifts solidarity from likeness to interdependence. Global supply chains illustrate organic solidarity. Anomie and forced division of labour fit gig work, caste-typed jobs, and lockdown rupture. Marx and unpaid care mark the gaps. Relevant, not sufficient.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Emile Durkheim treated the division of labour as the move from mechanical solidarity of likeness to organic solidarity of interdependence. The map still reads factories, professions, and global supply chains. Abnormal forms also still read gig precarity and lockdown rupture.
Body
What still fits
- Organic solidarity is visible when a phone, a vaccine, or a garment gathers parts and skills across countries.
- Restitutive law, contracts, and professional ethics remain the glue of specialised work, as he expected.
- The non-contractual basis of contract still matters: trust, standards, and logistics make exchange possible.
Abnormal forms today
- Anomic division of labour appears when rules lag behind new trades, as in platform work without clear hours or security.
- Forced division of labour appears when caste, gender, and race assign tasks irrespective of talent.
- The 2020 reverse migration showed how urban organic links can snap when the state and firm treat labour as disposable.
Limits
- Durkheim underplayed class exploitation that Marx placed at the centre of the same specialisation.
- He did not theorise unpaid care, which Ann Oakley made visible as labour outside the factory map.
- Relevance is high for interdependence and anomie; it is incomplete as a full political economy.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD DOL[Division of labour] --> MECH[Mechanical likeness] DOL --> ORG[Organic interdependence] ORG --> GVC[Global supply chains] ABN[Anomie forced DOL] --> GIG[Gig lockdown caste]
Conclusion
Durkheim’s division of labour remains relevant for global interdependence and for diagnosing anomie and forced specialisation. It is not a complete theory of gig work, care, or class. Use it with Marx and gender analysis.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Critically examine the dialectics involved in each mode of production as propounded by Karl Marx
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q3(b)). View answer →
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Does organic solidarity mean harmony?
No. Durkheim already named abnormal forms. Interdependence can be unequal.
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Is the theory only about factories?
No. Professions, science, and now cross-border logistics are the same problem of moral density.
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