EMILS DIRKEMS UN SOCIOLOĢIJA LATVIJĀ MŪSDIENĀS

The purpose of this article is to review Emile Durkheim’s contribution to defining the subject of sociology and to the institutionalization of sociology as an academic discipline. A significant step in establishing sociology as a science was the publication of the journal L’Année sociologique. Durkheim successfully built a cohesive team of collaborators who created the journal and laid the foundation for the French school sociology. Many of them later occupied prestigious positions in academic life and research. Durkheim’s arguments for defining the subject of sociological research have not lost their relevance in the 20th and 21st centuries. The same challenges faced in the French university system in Durkheim’s time remain relevant today in the Latvian academic environment.