Emile Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858 in Epinal, capital town of the department of Vosages in Lorraine. Born the son of a rabbi in a Jewish family, he too was intended to follow his father and attended a rabbinical school. While still a school boy Durkheim dismissed this idea and soon, Judaism altogether after his arrival to Paris. After two failing attempts, Durkheim got admission to the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure where he eventually became a professor simultaneously gaining great influence in the French academic world. Emile Durkheim is considered by many to be the father of sociology. He is credited with making sociology a science and having made it part if the French curriculum as "science social". Having lived in a France that underwent, at the time, tremendous change due to industrialisation, modernisation and a world war, Durkheim developed many influential theories and concepts on these matters. Durkheim's functionalist perspective was prevalent for a substantially long time and although many of his concepts, under the light of new scientific research, are greatly imperfect their importance and influential nature cannot be disregarded.
             At the beginning of the nineteenth century certain profound changes occurred in the socio economic structure of western society. Great movement from rural areas to towns and cities was witnessed. This urbanization happened because of the increase in availability of jobs due to industrialization. This is the development of modern forms of industry, factories, machines and large-scale production processes in pursuit of profit. Cities increased in population by as much as two hundred percent within 40 years. But with such dramatic changes in the population of cities, the structure of society inevitably changed with profound implications on its members. The changes brought about by industrialization were described by many as the most significant transformation that s...