Durkheim’s French Sociologist

Emile Durkheim was born in 1858 and died in 1917 he was a French sociologist,a realist and functionalist.he believed that society was real he was concerned with why individuals behave they way they do in an industrial society.
He also wrote on collective conscience and social fact according to him social facts are those things that brings or binds individuals together for example religion,family,marriage,tradition it could also be seen as things we can see and identify that is tangible things.
According to him society was more important than individuals and that society was beyond the individuals or persons that composed it or formed it He also said that society has a life of its own he also implied that no society no individual 
He also was of the opinion that society had a greater role to play in the lives of individuals that composed it and he disagreed that individual influenced the evolution of a society rather the society was in turn one element that moulded an individual’s behavior or life 
According to him there was Organic and Mechanical Solidarity 
Organic solidarity has to do with an industrial society while a mechanical solidarity has to do with Values and norms 
His main contributions were on Division of labour,Suicide,His doctorate thesis,the role of sociological methods and the elementary forms of religious life.