Division of Labor

Abstract

The concept of the division of labor is used both by structural functionalists (the students of Durkheim) and conflict theorists (the students of Marx), but the meaning of the concept differs. For Durkheim and his followers, it means the occupational structure, and it also includes a new form of social solidarity, organic solidarity, that integrates the members of industrial societies in contrast to the mechanical solidarity of traditional societies. Durkheim saw this as a weaker, more precarious form of solidarity that was still in the process of development in the early twentieth century. For Marx and his followers, it means a double division of labor, the technical division of labor in the enterprise and in a particular industry that broke down the production process into a sequence of tasks and the social division of labor among enterprises, industries, and social classes that was mediated through commodity exchange in market relations. While the social labor of the enterprise was rationally organized, Marx saw contradictions and class exploitation and domination in the social division of labor.