Georg Simmel's contributions to the theory of social differentiation: a multidimensional approach

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Lionel Lewkow
University of Buenos Aires

The aim of this article is to show the various levels of meaning of Georg Simmel´s Differentiation Theory, discussing how it was interpreted in sociology. Focusing on his early Social Theory, I sustain that Simmel offers an approach to the issues of the division of labour and the social integration alternative of that of Émile Durkheim. Thus, I argue that the German thinker´s proposal is not multidimensional just because it conceives differentiation in parallel to the “equalization”, but also to the extent that it deals with the constitution of individuality alongside that of the modern groups, the point at which he anticipates some aspects of Niklas Luhmann´s Differentiation Theory. In this frame I display the other dimensions that Simmel outlines to unravel the modern process of differentiation, that is, the contrast between “subjective” and “objective”, “qualitative” and “quantitative”, “synchronic” and “diachronic differentiation”.   

Keywords
classical sociology, social differentiation, individualisation, Georg Simmel, Émile Durkheim, Niklas Luhmann

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Lewkow, Lionel. “Georg Simmel’s contributions to the theory of social differentiation: a multidimensional approach”. Digithum, no. 27, doi:10.7238/d.v0i27.374141.
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(c) Lionel Lewkow, 2021


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Author Biography

Lionel Lewkow, University of Buenos Aires

Lionel Lewkow holds a doctorate in Social Sciencies and a degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires. He works as a researcher for the Gino Germani Research Institute, where he carries out the work subject “Beyond dualism between inequality and differentiation: the problem of the social classes in Simmel, Durkheim, Parsons and Luhmann”. He is an associate professor in the Sociology Degree at the University of Buenos Aires. He was a doctoral and postdoctoral grant holder on the National Council of Scientífic and Technical Research (CONICET), with its work headquarters at the Gino Germani Research Institute. He completed research stays at Konstanz (Germany), Lucerne and Basel Universities (Switzerland). He was invited professor at UAM Azcapotzalco (Mexico), Adolfo Ibáñez University (Chile) and the University of Antioquia (Colombia). He was coeditor, together with Daniela López, of the collected works The Social Significance of Prices (Teseo, Buenos Aires, 2018). He is the author of the book Luhmann, Interpeter of Husserl, the Observed Observer (Miño and Dávila, Buenos Aires, 2017) and translated from German to Spanish the Simmel work titled On Social Differentiation, Social and Psychological Research (Gedisa, Barcelona, 2017).

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