Thursday, February 5, 2009

Durkheim, Solidarity, and the Men’s Story Project

Abstract: Mechanical and organic solidarity differ from one another in five fundamental ways: how solidarity binds people, individuals' links to society, the relative importance of the collective versus individual consciousness, the dominant form of law, and the role of the state. The Men's Story Project came together through mechanical solidarity and became effective through organic solidarity. The challenge for the future is creating and increasing solidarity with new project members and potential audiences. This change will by necessity not be a revolution; it will happen one step at a time.

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  1. Mechanical and organic solidarity differ from one another in five fundamental ways: how solidarity binds people, individuals' links to society, the relative importance of the collective versus individual consciousness, the dominant form of law, and the role of the state. Solidarity means the feeling of unity with others. Both mechanical and organic forms are ideal types, and in practice both exist simultaneously and interact with one another (p. 83).

    While mechanical solidarity is predicated on similarity between individuals and a limited or nonexistent division of labor, organic solidarity depends on complementary differences that arise through an advanced division of labor (ibid). In mechanical solidarity, people are linked to society directly, and in organic solidarity individuals join with society through a role that has definite relationships with other roles (ibid). Durkheim implies that there are little to no institutions within mechanical solidarity, while institutions proliferate in organic solidarity.

    To further differentiate the types, Durkheim counterposes the collective consciousness with individual consciousness. The collective consciousness is the sum of commonly held beliefs and sentiments in a given society (pp. 38-9). Individual consciousness includes individuality and personality (pp. 84-5). In mechanical solidarity, the collective consciousness destroys individual consciousness (p. 84). Repressive law dominates; crimes are those actions that violate the collective consciousness (p. 40). The collective punishes criminals according to the severity of the offense (p. 52). The state both symbolizes and defends the collective consciousness (p. 43).

    By contrast, the collective consciousness under organic solidarity decreases proportionately with the increase in individual consciousnesses (p. 85). Restitutive law dominates. It defines social roles and the relationships between them. In a law suit, the damages awarded are not punitive as with repressive law; they simply restore the state of affairs to normal (p. 68). However, the collective consciousness never disappears completely because it is the basis for state authority, and the state must regulate a society with an advanced division of labor (pp. 43, 171).

    The Men's Story Project came together through mechanical solidarity and became effective through organic solidarity. Most obviously, the performers in the MSP are men. Our shared gender and a common desire to further understand masculinity created the initial bond. Individual differences deepen the bond between members and increases the project’s effectiveness. One goal of the project is to complicate the meaning of masculinity—to dispel the myth of a singular definition of male. We achieve this by telling our diverse stories. Further, a woman organized the group. Her presence increases the project's legitimacy; it becomes a cross-gender collaboration, which is important given the plethora of men's stories that already exist. Her role as director, not performer, is both distinct and important. Thus, our diversity holds us together and gives us strength.

    The challenge for the future is creating and increasing solidarity with new project members and potential audiences. Because organic solidarity requires common rules—regulations—to operate effectively, we must delineate acceptable and inacceptable behavior for performers. Each new performer will approach the project with different life experiences and may not be familiar with San Francisco Bay Area social justice practices: step up/step down, respect other participants' points of view, keep the content of group discussions confidential unless otherwise noted, etc. Furthermore, not everybody is ready or willing to hear all, or perhaps any, of the messages in the Men's Story Project. In contrast to Marx, this is conceivably the most important insight Durkheim gives us: Social change is most effective one step at a time.

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