The Differences Between ‘Mechanical Solidarity’ and ‘Organic Solidarity’.

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In this essay I will discuss the differences between mechanical and organic solidarity. Solidarity is the loyalty and general agreement between all the people in a group or between different groups because they all have a shared aim. According to the French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, there are two kinds of solidarity, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Durkheim discusses how the division of labour is beneficial for society as it expands the reproductive capacity, the skill of the workman, and it establishes a feeling of solidarity between people, in ‘The division of Labour in Society’. Durkheim argues that society could not exist without social solidarity (1914, p. 151). The similarity that distinguishes the beliefs, opinions and social relationships in traditional societies (ie.pre-industrial or agricultural) provokes what Durkheim calls mechanical solidarity. People are morally and mentally homogeneous and so communities are consistent. In this kind of society an entirety of beliefs and conceptions general to all people is present, which is referred to as the conscience collective by Durkheim. This conscience discussed by Durkheim is subjected by the features of constraint and exteriority. Constraint refers to the idea that the important point that the membership of a mechanically solidary society can’t righteously argue against its collective conscious. Exteriority gives reference to the fact that the conscious collectively is never a result of the components of society at any one point in time. (Tonnies, 2002, p. 13). When people in a community (normally in a small scale, traditional society) have similar occupations, beliefs, overlapping social relationships and experiences, the production of social cohesion is relatively easier as the society is organised collectively. The bond that attaches the individual to society is this shared belief

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