Durkheim’s Concept of Collective Consciousness and Chinese Villages Development South China Normal University

LI YUNYAN

【Abstract】In a rapid social transformation times， more and more social problems come to existence in Chinese villages， which results in instability in the society. By using the collective consciousness theory from Durkheim， the paper analyze the anomie phenomena in Chinese village community.

【Key words】countryside； collective consciousness； Emile Durkheim

In the process of social transformation， there are a series of problems raising， such as the expansion of social gap， the challenges in urban civilization， disorder in economic environment， the decline of moral ethnic and interpersonal indifference. These complicated issues show the reality of the society. The allocation of resources is unreasonable and unfair distribution of interests， which result in much disharmonious element in society.

Indifference of Collective Consciousness in Transition Times

Traditional rural society actually is a mechanical solidarity society dominated. Collective consciousness in the rural society is linked to moral ethnics and public opinion of the village. The whole village have higher degree of social integration， social order and stability. In the process of transition from traditional agriculture to modern industrial society， the village society has undergone dramatic change.

Nowadays， the economic restructuring and development has brought economic development， loss of local cultural traditions and differentiation among the villagers.

The typical phenomenon is that many people think that the migrant workers possess higher income and salary than that who farm，which cause much farming field become barren. Many people are free to exchange of land and use the land for building houses. The elderly are facing the lacking of protection and medical care， for the youth have gone to the urban area to work and leave their children and parents in the villages. The concepts of interpersonal relationship gradually fading， with the people becoming more self-centered. These new changes are partly affecting the loss of collective consciousness in the village. Collective sense of belonging and attachment to the village are replaced by the indifferent feeling.

In short， the lacking of collective consciousness comes from the loss of ownership and belonging of the villagers in the shared community and it results in the traditional society pattern and order cannot be maintained any more.

Reconsideration of building the collective consciousness

It is an inevitable trend that a traditional agricultural society will become into a modern industrial society. How can we nurture the new collective consciousness under a trustworthy，communicative and tolerant human environment？

Firstly， new morality order can be rebuilt for solving the development of individualism and self-cantered idea in the villages. Durkheim believed that the essential problems of modern society were moral in nature and that the only real solution lay in reinforcing the strength of the collective morality. Durkheim also recognized that there was no returning to the powerful collective conscience of societies characterized by mechanical solidarity. We can not deny that individualism is becoming the moral system of modern society， even in the rural ares.

In Durkheims view， common morality can penetrates us and “re-compose” us. The Chinese government is promoting the harmonious concept in whole country， especially focusing in the villages. By nationally education of those values， it is a ways of giving collective consciousness for the rural area. Education and socialization were defined by Durkheim as the process by which the individual learns the ways of a given group or society - acquires the physical， intellectual， and moral tools needed to function in society. The process of socialization aims at developing a sense of devotion to society and to its moral system. These aspects of moral education are efforts to combat the pathological loosening of the grip of collective morality on the individual in modern society.

Although collective consciousness can provide the people more possibility to fluently go through the transition time and solve the differentiation more and more anomie phenomenon will show up because of the mismatch in the rural areas.

The collective consciousness in Durkheim can be applied into analyzing the phenomenon in the rural ares for providing us more angles and dimension to rethink how to build a sustainable developing villages in the transition period in China.

References：

[1]Kenneth Allan； Kenneth D.Allan（2005）.Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory：Seeing the Social World.Pine Forge Press.p126-37.

[2]Durkheim，?mile（1895）.The Rules of Sociological Method.p22-35.