Question

in six sentences or more answer this question.

Ferdinand Tonnies identified two types of community solidarity, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Give examples of each type of community and how their solidarity is demonstrated. How is their labor divided, type of personal ties, sense of loyalty to members, as well as internal relationships?

Answer 1

• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, ideal types of social organizations that were systematically elaborated by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in his influential work Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887; Community and Society).
• Tönnies’s conception of the nature of social systems is based on his distinction between the Gemeinschaft (communal society) and the Gesellschaft (associational society). In the rural, peasant societies that typify the Gemeinschaft, personal relationships are defined and regulated on the basis of traditional social rules.
• People have simple and direct face-to-face relations with each other that are determined by Wesenwille (natural will)—i.e., natural and spontaneously arising emotions and expressions of sentiment.
• He saw the family as the most perfect expression of Gemeinschaft; however, he also expected that Gemeinschaft could be based on shared place and shared belief as well as kinship, and included globally dispersed religious communities as possible examples of Gemeinschaft.
• Gemeinschaft community involves ascribed status, meaning a fixed status given by birth. For example, an individual born from farmers will come to occupy their parents’ role until death. Gemeinschaften (“communities”) are broadly characterized by a moderate division of labor, strong personal relationships, strong families, and relatively simple social institutions. In such societies, there is less of a need to enforce social control externally due to a collective sense of loyalty individuals feel for society.
• The Gesellschaft, in contrast, is the creation of Kürwille (rational will) and is typified by modern, cosmopolitan societies with their government bureaucracies and large industrial organizations
• . In the Gesellschaft, rational self-interest and calculating conduct act to weaken the traditional bonds of family, kinship, and religion that permeate the Gemeinschaft’s structure.
• In the Gesellschaft, human relations are more impersonal and indirect, being rationally constructed in the interest of efficiency or other economic and political considerations.
• A modern business is a good example of Gesellschaft: the workers, managers, and owners may have very little in terms of shared orientations or beliefs, or they may not care deeply for the product they are making, but it is in all their self interest to come to work to make money, and, therefore, the business continues.
• Gesellschaft society involves achieved status, or a status reached by education and professional advancement. Unlike Gemeinschaften (“communities”), Gesellschaften (“societies”) emphasize secondary relationships rather than familial or community ties, and there is generally less individual loyalty to the larger community.
• Social cohesion in Gesellschaften typically derives from a more elaborate division of labor. Such societies are, therefore, potentially more susceptible to class conflict, as well as racial and ethnic conflicts.
• Gemeinschaft/community characteristics:-
• Small-scale groups
• Everyone knows everyone else, face-to face relationships are paramount
• Family and kin ties are central
• Low to moderate division of labor e.g. all families are engaged in fishing or agriculture or hunting
• Relatively small-scale social institutions
• Collective sense of loyalty, shared values and shared aspirations
• Gesellschaft/society characteristics:-
• Members may have little in common, don’t share values, but they share a project which serves self-interest of the individuals
  – Product or service
  – Citizenship
  – Protection against outside forces
• Elaborate division of labor
• Divergent aspirations
• Susceptible to class, racial and ethnic conflict