Durkheim's Theory of Social Space

Emile Durkheim's social theory shows important insights into the role of space in social processes, which has been neglected thus far among both sociologists and geographers. His 'socio-spatial theory' has several aspects to be distinguished. The author focuses on Durkheim's theory of social space and sheds light on the significance of social space in his theoretical system. This leads to a re-evaluation of his 'geographical imagination. ' The starting point for the theory of social space is found in Durkheim's doctoral dissertation, The Division of Labor in Society, originally published in 1893. His conception of social space referred consistently to the geographical areas inhabited by social groups. It is supposed that the term was coined by Durkheim under his reading of Friedrich Ratzel's challenging thesis on the relationship between the State and its territory. Durkheim conceived society as a collective entity possessing its own body (social substratum) and its own mind (social life). In this social ontology, it is corsidered that social substratum is composed of social space and social group and that on the substratum social life is unfolding. Thus society is represented as a three-layered model comprising social space, social group and social life. In the model social life is connected through social group with social space, which becomes the spatial base for social life. Durkheim never diminished this theoretical significance of social space until his last years. Furthermore, cultivating his own geographical imagination, Durkheim tried to elaborate the more ambitious theory of social space. He thought that, based on the ethnographic materials of Zuni, social space served as a model for the form of classification system in primitive societies. In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, published in 1912, social space was regarded as a model for the category of space. It thus appears that social space was qualified as an intervening variable in the formation of social life, the form of the latter being modeled on the former. There are some limits and contradictions in Durkheim's theory of social space. He wrongly concluded that the theory was only applicable to "segmental societies" as he defined it. The nature of social space as an intervening variable is also questioned in terms of its empirical validity. It is nevertheless true that Durkheim's theory has some values to be discovered and re-evaluated. Durkheim had an insightful geographical imagination and penetrated the fundamental fact that no societies ever exist without the spatial context. He analytically differentiated social space from the empirical world. He saw social space not as a mere reflection of social life, but as an important element of it, and tried to evaluate the role of social space in various social processes. Durkheim's geographical imagination serves as a model of the indispensable intellectual equipment for constructing the socio-spatial theory.