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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Sociology > Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

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Distinction appears in Durkheim's 1893 work The Division of Labour in Society. Mechanical and Organic solidarity are ways in which social solidarity is fostered.

Mechanical Solidarity

Characterised by:

• A small, isolated homogeneous population
• Little or no specialisation
• Division of labour based on cooperation
• System where social links are based on custom, obligation and emotion.
• Shared Values and Beliefs
  • A system of social institutions in which religion is dominant
  • Produced a system of social cohesion
  • Legal system based on repressive sanctions, which serves to reaffirm traditional values
  • As a result of the dominance of a few shared values, society can mobilise en masse.
• Little individual freedom
  • System in which individualism is undeveloped
  • The status of the individual is determined by kinship

Organic Solidarity

Characterised by:

• Larger population spread out over a larger geographical area
• Complex division of labour
  • Individuals are dependent on others to perform economic functions that they themselves can not perform
  • Performs a key role in ensuring interdepence and development of social ties
  • Replaces interdependence based on kinsip, religious ties or shared values
• Much individual freedom
  • Individual the object of legal rights and freedoms
  • Individual status determined by occupation rather than kinship ties
• Legal System
  • Based on restitutive sanctions
  • Redress social wrongs by restoring situation to previous state

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