Social solidarity.html



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. The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences.

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

Ibn Khaldun

Main article: Asabiyyah

`Asabiyyah refers to social solidarity with an emphasis on unity, group consciousness, and social cohesion, originally in a context of "tribalism" and "clanism", but sometimes used for modern nationalism as well. Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah described it as the fundamental bond of human society and the basic motive force of history. `Asabiyya is neither necessarily nomadic nor based on blood relations. In the modern period, the term is generally analogous to solidarity.²³

Ibn Khaldun argues, effectively, that each dynasty has within itself the seeds of its own downfall. He explains that ruling houses tend to emerge on the peripheries of great empires and use the unity presented by those areas to their advantage in order to bring about a change in leadership. As the new rulers establish themselves at the center of their empire, they become increasingly lax and more concerned with maintaining their lifestyles. Thus, a new dynasty can emerge at the periphery of their control and effect a change in leadership, beginning the cycle anew.²

It can be compared to Émile Durkheim's mechanical solidarity as opposed to the organic solidarity which he suggests can be found in modern societies.³

Durkheim

According to Émile Durkheim, the types of social solidarity correlate with types of society. 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.⁴ In simpler societies (e.g., tribal), solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks. 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.⁴.Definition: it is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals in more advanced societies have on each other. Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interest, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. Organic here is referring to the interdependence of the component parts. Thus, social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts (e.g., farmers produce the food to feed the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmer to produce the food).

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.⁴

"...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 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)

• 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.⁶

See also

• Social disintegration

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p621.
2. ^ ^{a b} Alatas, Syed Farid (2006), "A Khaldunian Exemplar for a Historical Sociology for the South", Current Sociology 54 (3): 397-411, doi:10.1177/0011392106063189 
3. ^ ^{a b} Gellner, Ernest (2007), "Cohesion and Identity: the Maghreb from Ibn Khaldun to Emile Durkheim", Government and Opposition 10 (2): 203-18 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p405-6.
5. ^ Collins Dictionary of Sociology, p406 adapted from S. Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His life and Work (1973) London:Allen Lane
6. ^ Kivisto, Peter, Key Ideas in Sociology, 2nd ed. Pine Forge Press 2004

References

• Jary, David; Julia Jary (1991). Collins Dictionary of Sociology. Glasgow: Harper Collins, 774. ISBN 0-00-470804-0. 

Other reading

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