The concept of the division of labour in production has a long genealogy stretching back to the seventeenth century and before, and it recurs repeatedly in the writings of economists and other social theorists down to the present time. In economics, the concept plays a major role in studies of industrial organization, productivity, and trade. In sociology, it has been of major signiWcance as the linchpin of the distinction Wrst proposed by Durkheim (1893) between mechanical and organic solidarity in society
