Durkheim and the exchange processes between the different branches of the sciences

The paper concentrates on Durkheim's analyses of the sciences and of the exchange processes between the different branches of the sciences. The first part deals with Durkheim's description of the anomic division of scientific labor which is manifested in the lack of coordination between the different branches of knowledge. It comes to the conclusion that the market model is inadequate to describe scientific exchanges and that Durkheim must have felt that. However, he was unable to define a remedy. In later works, he sketched two models which, according to him, would solve the problem of scientific exchanges. The first one was outlined in his program for the Année sociologique. There he defined sociology as an interdisciplinary venture which would coordinate the different social sciences, providing methodological unity and assuring the exchange of scientific knowledge. The second model was sketched in Durkheim's history of higher education. There he saw periods of intensive exchange, of collective scientific effervescence where spontaneous cooperation between scientists emerged. In this sense, scientific exchanges would contribute to the establishment of social solidarity itself. Durkheim's answers are inadequate but the problem of scientific cooperation and exchange remains a problem which is not satisfactorily solved. Reprinted by permission of Szociológiai Szemle