solidarity (mechanical and organic)

In Durkheim’s The Division of Labour in Society (1893) the social bond appears in two forms. Mechanical solidarity is found in small groups of similar individuals: the collective conscience almost takes the place of individual conscience. Organic solidarity arises from the functional interdependence of specialised parts, like the organs of a body.

The cause of the transition is the increase in the frequency of contact, that is, in “moral or dynamic density”, which is driven by population and above all by communication and transport technology. Density increases competition and competition increases specialisation. The word “mechanical” does not mean “cold” or “bad”; it says only that the bond comes from likeness.

Durkheim later abandoned the two terms; in later years he thought of solidarity in symbolic and religious terms, through ritual and collective effervescence.