Memo #1- Durkheim

Greg De Benedictis

Mechanical solidarity is solidarity based on likeness of people. He calls it mechanical because, like molecules, they are joined and connected to serve one function (84). According to Durkheim, it is made up of people with no individuality that share common norms and values. In an extreme case of mechanical solidarity, there would be no such thing as a division of labor because people would be doing the same thing, at the same time and even in the same pace. In this type of society, the collective consciousness is very strong compared to the individual consciousness. This type of solidarity has lots of repressive laws, whose goal is to punish those criminals who violate the collective consciousness. Durkheim believes that the punishment needs to be public so everyone can see what happens when a person commits a crime. It also needs to be passionate because the people would need to know how serious the crime is against the collective consciousness. Finally, it needs to be organized through legislative bodies or tribunals made by the people.
Organic solidarity is solidarity based on complementary differences. The division of labor and bonds to society are based on interdependence on other’s specialization for society. The individual consciousness is very strong against the collective consciousness. However, even though people have individual needs, they know that societal needs trump individual needs, just as Durkheim says that people are organs who work to function for the collective good of the body. This type of solidarity uses restitutive law, which restore relations back to the way it was, almost as if it never happened. In order to repair relations, there has to be sanctions organized for the division of labor, in which a criminal needs to be present. Durkheim is suggesting that the only way for solidarity to remain in society is for the state to regulate these relations, particularly economic relations. Once these contractual relations develop, non-contractual elements of contract form which underline values, consensus and trust. Only the state can create equalization of power between the different parts of society and as a result, it becomes bigger.
In the sorority I chose to observe, it seems that it definitely has a mix of both mechanical and organic solidarity. First off, the obvious the sorority are made up of women only so they share the same gender. The ladies share the same collective consciousness in regards to the principles they uphold: academics, community and sisterhood. According to the “laws” that govern the sorority, punishments for the crimes that would violate the collective consciousness depend on the severity. For example, a girl who is caught sneaking a boy into her room after hours will be disciplined by doing chores around the house and suspended visiting privileges. A girl is approached by an elder sister for a disciplinary meeting with officers and at the weekly house meeting, the president will make an announcement about the offense against the collective consciousness This is an example of a repressive law because the punishment is made public to everyone at the house meeting and it is organized by the disciplinary committee. The chapter council, which is made of sisters, plans events for the ladies, ranging from sister bonding to community outreach. Every sister must attend events unless they have a good reason. Thus, this follows the mechanical solidarity model because the ladies are supposed to do everything in unison with their sisters.
As for organic solidarity, the ladies obviously have their own individual consciousness with regard to attending other events aside from their own sorority. Some sisters are a part of different clubs on campus and play sports for various teams. Within the sorority, the girls can be a part of different groups like social committee, philanthropic committee, even a sustainability committee. Each girl works in different parts for the whole of the sorority. In this sorority, each girl comes from a different background in terms of race, class, and majors, which upholds the idea that the division of labor comes from the specialization of the individual that can contribute to the society. Finally, the “state” in this sorority would be the officers like the president, vice president, committee chairs, etc and they uphold the rules of the house and the sorority. They monitor the relations between each committee so no one committee or person is more powerful than another. Non-contractual relations are embedded within every activity and rule within the institution like trust your sisters to always be there and to honor the guiding principles of academics, community and sisterhood.