Emile Durkheim examined the theory of the division of labor in 1893 to determine whether it would actually lead to social integration and solidarity among different groups. Class struggles and economic crises fueled his suspicion that contractual interest reconciliation would not suffice as long as the division of labor did not already take place within an integrated society. However, for Durkheim, this presupposes the existence of a common morality, which must serve as a principle and guideline for a just social order and cannot be established purely contractually. In doing so, Durkheim formulated a classic argument that emphasized the significance and autonomy of social integration in relation to diverging individual interests, making the socially mediated and negotiable morality a central theme of sociology.