Solidarity
"Social life comes from a double source, the likeness of consciences and the division of social labor."
(Durkheim, 1933, p.226)
Mechanical Solidarity - Social cohesion based upon the likeness and similarities among individuals in a society, and largely dependent on common rituals and routines. Common among prehistoric and pre-agricultural societies, and lessens in predominance as modernity increases.
Organic Solidarity - Social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals in more advanced society have on each other. Common among industrial societies as the division of labor increases. Though individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interests, the order and very survival of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specific task.
Durkheim discussed social solidarity--the bond between all individuals within a society--in considerable depth, especially in his first major work, The Division of Labor in Society, first published in 1893. He first described the social cohesion particular to pre-industrial societies. This mechanical solidarity as he called it (see definition above), occurred when all members of a society performed the same or nearly the same tasks as all others in a society. If one person were to die and not be replaced, the society would not change, because all other members did exactly the same thing as the member that died. The collective conscience of a mechanical society is identical among all members, and the bond derives not from dependence on other individuals, but from the dependence on the total social system.
Durkheim's primary interest was what happened as societies begin to modernize, when they begin to industrialize and labor becomes increasingly specialized. Durkheim calls the new form of solidarity resulting from modernization organic solidarity. In modern, industrial societies, labor is tremendously divided. Individuals no longer perform the same tasks, have the same interests, nor necessarily share the same perspectives on life. But Durkheim quickly points out that this does not cause a society to fail or disintegrate. Organic solidarity is formed. Like the organs within an animal, individuals perform certain specific functions, but rely on the well-being and successful performance of other individuals. If one organ fails, the rest of them fail as well. A body--or in this case a society--cannot function at all if one part crumbles. This reliance upon each other for social (and even physical) survival is the source of organic soldarity, according to Durkheim.
Durkheim on Solidarity:
"The social molecules that cohere in this way can act together only in so far as they have no action of their own, as with the molecules of inorganic bodies. That is why we propose to call this form of solidarity 'mechanical.'"
(Giddens, 1972, p.139 [excerpt from The Division of Labor in Society])
"In societies where this type of solidarity [mechanical] is highly developed, the individual is not his own master...Solidarity is, literally something which the society possesses."
(1972, p.139 [excerpt from The Division of Labor in Society])
"There is then, a social structure of determined nature to which mechanical solidarity corresponds. What characterizes it is a system of segments homogeneous and similar to each other. Quite different is the structure of societies where organic solidarity is preponderant. They are constituted, not by a repitition of similar, homogeneous segments, but by a system of different organs each of which has a special role, and which are themselves formed of differentiated parts."
(1933, p. 181)
"In one case as in the other, the structure derives from the division of labor and its solidarity. Each part of the animal, having become an organ, has its proper sphere of action where it moves independently without imposing itself upon others. But, from another point of view, they depend more upon one another than in a colony, since they cannot separate without perishing."
(1933, p.192)
"...Even where society relies most completely upon the division of labor, it does not become a jumble of juxtaposed atoms, between which it can establish only external, transient contacts. Rather the members are united by ties which extend deeper and far beyond the short moments during which the exchange is made. Each of the functions that they exercise is, in a fixed way, dependent upon others, and with them forms a solidary system."
(1933, p. 226)
Sources:
Durkheim, Emile. 1933. The Division of Labor in Society Translated by George Simpson. New York: The Free Press.
Giddens, Anthony. 1972. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings. London: Cambridge University Press.
