Social solidarity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Solidarity (disambiguation).

Social solidarity refers to the integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group.[1] It refers to the ties in a society - social relations - that bind people to one another. Solidarity is commonly associated with political socialism, being seen as the driving force and defining temperament behind the ideal classless work force.

What forms the basis of solidarity varies between societies. In simple societies it may be mainly based around kinship and shared values. In more complex societies there are various theories as to what contributes the sense of social solidarity.[1]

Contents

[edit] Durkheim

Émile Durkheim introduced the terms "mechanical" and "organic solidarity" as part of his theory of the development of societies in The Division of Labour in Society (1893). In a society exhibiting mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals—people feel connected through similar work, educational and religious training, and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in "traditional" and small scale societies.[2] Organic solidarity comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work and the complementarities between people—a development which occurs in "modern" and "industrial" societies.[2]

The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by morphological and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective.[2]

Mechanical and organic solidarity[3]
Feature Mechanical solidarity Organic solidarity
Morphological (structural) basis Based on resemblances (predominant in less advanced societies)
Segmental type (first clan-based, later territorial)
Little interdependence (social bonds relatively weak)
Relatively low volume of population
Relatively low material and moral density		 Based on division of labour (predominately in more advanced societies)
Organized type (fusion of markets and growth of cities)
Much interdependency (social bonds relatively strong)
Relatively high volume of population
Relatively high material and moral density
Types of norms (typified by law) Rules with repressive sanctions
Prevalence of penal law
 Rules with restitutive sanctions
Prevalence of cooperative law (civil, commercial, procedural, administrative and constitutional law)
Formal features of conscience collective High volume
High intensity
High determinateness
Collective authority absolute		 Low volume
Low intensity
Low determinateness
More room for individual initiative and reflection
Content of conscience collective Highly religious
Transcendental (superior to human interests and beyond discussion)
Attaching supreme value to society and interests of society as a whole
Concrete and specific		 Increasingly secular
Human-orientated (concerned with human interests and open to discussion)
Attaching supreme value to individual dignity, equality of opportunity, work ethic and social justice
Abstract and general

"...if I have properly understood gesellschaft is supposed to be characterised by a progressive development of individualism, the dispersive effects of which can only be prevented for a time, and by artificial means by the action of the state, it is essentially a mechanical aggregate."

  • Durkheim believed that Toennies saw individualism as working against moral order, people become unattached like atoms flowing in space suggesting that the only thing holding people together, prevented relationships from fracturing, and holds people to society was the imposition of order and coherence of the state.
  • Durkheim asserted that the life of social agglomerates is just as natural, and is no less internal as that of small groupings.
  • Durkheim—unlike Marx, who wrote about capitalism and its divisions—wrote about the division of labour in society.
  • Durkheim wrote about two kinds of solidarity: Mechanical solidarity and Organic solidarity.
  • He characterised preindustrial societies as mechanical and industrial societies as organic (thus opposing Toennies theories by using opposite terminology)
  • In the machine age, however, when people have been forced off the land and out of tradition-based communities by the dictates of impersonal marketplace and forced into artificiality of cities where social relations are defined increasingly in terms of a world of strangers, this would hardly appear to be organic.
  • Although the bonds of mechanical solidarity were based on "a more or less organized totality of beliefs and sentiments common to all the members of the group," this gave way in industrial society to potent new forces that were characterised by heightened complexity and differentiation, an increased dependence on society, and, seemingly paradoxically at first glance, a growing level of individual autonomy.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p621.
  2. ^ a b c Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p405-6.
  3. ^ Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p406 adapted from S. Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His life and Work (1973) London:Allen Lane
  4. ^ Kivisto, Peter, Key Ideas in Sociology, 2nd ed. Pine Forge Press 2004

[edit] References

[edit] Other reading

  • Ankerl, Guy: Toward a social contract on world-wide scale: Solidarity contract. Geneva, ILO, 1980, ISBN 92-9014-165-4