Durkheim et le politique

Emile Durkheim was one of the founding fathers of sociology, and his work is known to deal with the social aspects of collective life. According to Bernard Lacroix, this traditional image of Durkheim neglects one essential aspect of his thought. A detailed analysis of this early writings reveals the major thèmes (the State, authority, social cohésion) of a still hésitant thinker. The field to which they belong — " political and moral sciences " — attests to the political stakes of the sociologisfs initial reflections. Durkheim's intellectual itinerary and biography, which Bernard Lacroix links by presenting, based upon unpublished private papers, the first psychoanalytical interprétation of the dynamics of his thought, confirms that the more Durkheim appears to leave behind the society of his time, the more he places power at the very core of his work. The analysis thus shows, perhaps surprisingly, that power has been the center of an argument which may constitute of the unifying principles of Durkheim's work. His thought, sometimes considered outdated, thus acquires an undeniable relevance.