GEMEINSHAFT and GESSELCHAFT

Prepared by : Ruth Ann P. Tiu

Ferdinand Tnnies
Main points A Biographical Sketch The system of the sociology

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

(1855-1936)

A Biographical

Sketch

1855,born ,26 July,Oldenswort in the duchy of Schleswig 1865,his family moved to Husum,where his father took up merchant banking. 1867,he entered the local grammar school ,studied Greek,Latin and German calssical literature. 1871-77,studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Jena, Leipzig, Berlin, Kiel and Tubingen. 1881,An early version of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft submitted as his Habilitationsschrift at university of Kiel. 1887,first edition of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft was published. 1913,his first permanent chair,a professorship of economic political science,at the university of Kiel. 1932,joined the social democratic party to support resistance to the rise of fascism. 1936,he died in Kiel.

Community and society

In 1887, Ferdinand Tonnies, a German sociologist, introduced in the West one of the more enduring and effective ways of understanding social change. He proposed that we understand social change by distinguishing between communities and societies. For him

 1)

Gemeinschaft (community): characterized country village, people in rural village have an essential unity of purpose, work together for the common good, united by ties of family (kinship) and neighbourhood,

land worked communally by inhabitants, social life characterized by intimate, private and exclusive living together, members bound by common language and traditions, recognized common goods and evils, common friends and enemies, sense of we-ness or our-ness, humane

 2)

Gesellschaft (association): characterized large city, city life is a mechanical aggregate characterized by disunity, rampant individualism and selfishness, meaning of existence shifts from group to individual, rational, calculating, each person understood in terms of a particular role and service provided;

deals with the artificial construction of an aggregate of human beings which superficially resembles the Gemeinschaft in so far as the individuals peacefully live together yet whereas in Gemeinschaft people are united in spite of all separating factors, in Gesellschaft people are separated in spite of all uniting factors

Three types of Gemeinschaft relationships

1.1) Kinship Gemeinschaft is based on Family; the strongest relationship being between mother and child, then husband and wife, and then siblings. Gemeinschaft also exists between father and child, but this relationship is less instinctual than that of mother and child. However, the father-child relationship is the original manifestation of authority within Gemeinschaft.

1.2) Kinship develops and differentiates into the Gemeinschaft of Locality, which is based on a common habitat

 1.3)

There is also Friendship, or Gemeinschaft of the mind, which requires a common mental community (eg: religion).

Gemeinschaft (traditional small community)

People cooperate with each other very closely This behavior being determined by kinship ties This behavior reinforced by the social controls of their neighbors and of the church

Gesellschaft (modern urban society)

Individuals act for their own self-interest

Cooperating only as much as required by
Laws Contracts Public opinion that constrains their actions

In the society of his time, he perceived that small, close, traditional family-oriented communities were being gradually superseded by large and impersonal cities.

community

Spontaneous Closeness of holistic social relationships said to be found in pre-industrial communities .and associated with moral worth. Exists by the subjective or essential will of the members:the very existence of Gemeinschaft rests in the consciousness of belonging together and the affirmation of the condition of mutual dependence community based on mutual aid and trust shared togetherness E.g.families, neighbourhoods communities were units in which people lived together and were characterized by intimacy and privacy.

Examples of communities were the family, kinship groups, friendship networks, and neighborhoods. There exists a community of language of folkways,or mores ,or of beliefs. there exists a community of ownship in fields,forest,and pasture. community is old ,in rural ,people is stronger and more alive;it is the lasting and genuine form of living together. there are three community:community of locality;community of mind;community of kinship.

Urban Problems

The problems of cities Crowding Transportation Death rates were higher than in rural areas Developing adequate supplies of water and systems of waste disposal Crime prevention Marketing facilities

Distinction between community and society is important in understanding the complex confusion of ideas around community studies. Underlies almost all sociological debate in this field. Concept of community is fundamental to the world.

Assessment