Talk:Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

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This article does a good job, I think, of explaining these related terms in a sociological context, but doesn't it need some discussion of how the terms evolved in, for example, the work of Hegel? Did the meanings or understanding of the terms evolve later?jackbrown 20:08, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia?

So would it be accurate to characterize the regular editors of Wikipedia as a Gesellschaft? —Dgiest c 09:04, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Generally, I should like to agree: Wikipedia is overwhelmingly “gesellschaft”, most contributors using it for their own goals.
But, as it happens very often in gesellschafts, the contributors prefer to think of themselves as friends or the like, i.e. as members of a “gemeinschaft”. And, to a degree, it works. Remember, in real social life gemeinschaft and gesellschaft always co-exist. Only as theoretical concepts, they are contradictory. -- €pa 00:57, 8 January 2007 (UTC)