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SOCIAL FACT [2 records]

Record 1 2012-09-10

English

Subject field(s)
  • Sociology (General)
CONT

Social facts should be considered as things - in Durkheim's view, they are things, meaning they are "sui generis," peculiar in their characteristics: they are the effect or creation of human activities, actions or agency ... Social facts offer resistance to individuals' will; they exert power over individuals' beliefs, forms of consciousness, behavior and cannot be modified by individuals' actions or changes in their beliefs, consciousness, attitudes ... Examples of social facts: institutions, statuses, roles, laws, beliefs, population distribution, urbanization, etc.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Sociologie (Généralités)
DEF

Phénomène qui existe en dehors de l'individu - plus précisément, au niveau social - et qui, de ce fait, s'impose à lui.

Spanish

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Record 2 2012-09-04

English

Subject field(s)
  • Sociology (General)
CONT

Mauss's aim was to show that exchange in primitive societies was a total social fact because, apart from the simple form of the transaction, generalized exchange touched on many social mechanisms including the religious, economic, judicial, and moral mechanism. A total social fact, according to Mauss, therefore always concerns the whole of society and its institutions: economic, political, religious, legal, etc.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Sociologie (Généralités)
DEF

[...] phénomène qui met en branle la totalité de la société et de ses institutions.

CONT

[...] dans la théorie du fait social total, la notion de totalité est moins importante que la manière très particulière dont Mauss la conçoit [...] instance privilégiée qu'on peut appréhender au niveau de l'observation, dans des occasions bien déterminées, quand se mettent en branle la totalité de la société et de ses institutions.

Spanish

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