-
Essay / Durkheim's concept of social solidarity in organizing as a Sunday Assembly
This essay will analyze how organizations such as the Sunday Assembly can be useful in collectively bringing individuals together in society. Emile Durkheim would call a service like this the "social glue" in society, as he asserts that shared moral beliefs such as Sunday Assembly create a sense of harmony. Durkheim's concept of anomie will be explained and how, in a modern division of labor, it can threaten social solidarity and social order. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayFirst, for Durkheim, the achievement of social life among humans and the existence of a social order, which he alternatively called “social solidarity”, are obvious. through the socialization of individuals. The Sunday Assembly would be an example of social solidarity and how people come together and socialize within society. Madeley explains how, at Sunday Assembly, she began to feel a sense of community after feeling isolated following her redundancy. Clearly, Sunday Assembly is a source of social connection in a modern society where redundancy is evident and people use these services as a coping mechanism in times of despair. In solidarity, Durkheim separates the term into “mechanical” and “organic”. In the complex society we live in today, organic solidarity is apparent, there is individuality and specialization in the division of labor and in all aspects of life. This means that everyone has a specialization in their work that will be different from others, however, everyone will still be dependent on each other, creating this solidarity. In contrast, mechanical solidarity is achieved in traditional pre-modern societies, through a simpler division of labor where people live similar types of lives. There were fewer roles to play and it was much easier for people to collectively see the world in the same way because many performed the same professional roles. As religion has declined, the Sunday Assembly is one of the secular community groups to take its place. It could be said that religion conformed to the norms and values of traditional pre-modern societies and that, through industrialization, modern organic societies lack religion due to their decline. With religion disappearing, this could contribute to an anomic period within society, highlighting the importance of groups such as the Sunday Assembly in bringing back this secular presence. Alternatively, Durkheim's concept of anomie is somewhat the opposite of social solidarity, he says. believes that anomie is a social condition in which norms and values disintegrate or disappear in society. For example, if organizations such as Sunday Assembly did not exist, people would have fewer opportunities to come together and socialize and the norms and values that people share would soon deteriorate. Durkheim believes that when a social system is in a state of anomie, common values and meanings are no longer understood or accepted, and new values and meanings have not developed. Essentially, people became too individualized in their roles, the sense of lack of norms faded, and people stopped following the same norms and values. It could be said that the Sunday Assembly would be partly responsible for creating new social norms and values that people could adhere to and adopt. Crossman,.