Knowledge clips Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies

KNOWLEDGE CLIPS WEEK 1: SOLIDARITY
CLIP 1.1: HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL ROOTS
Solidarity
- What is it?
- Where does it come from?
 Sociological and historical roots
 Durkheim: mechanical vs. organic solidarity

Historical roots of solidarity
- Shared aims and interests (common identity)
- Family/kinship
- Fraternity (brotherhood)
o From Christian to political value
- Community
o Gemeinshaft = shared life experiences (work, community);
Community; a willingness to share resources
o Gesellschaft = society (solidarity as a moral principle
underlying society (and the welfare state))
o Shift from gemeinshaft to gesellshaft

Sociological roots of solidarity
- Solidarity: sociological critique of social contract
o (Hobbes, Locke, Spencer)
o Social contract = implicit societal agreement about sharing
resources
- Leroux, Comte, Tönnies
o Leroux: shared values
o Leroux : too much emphasis on individual  we are dependent
and interdependent
o Comte: solidarity as an integrative mechanism in society
o Tönnies: gemeinshaft and gesellshaft
- Durkheim
o Mechanical vs. organic solidarity
o Solidarity as normative, integrative mechanism

Durkheim: mechanical solidarity
- Pre-industrial (traditional) society
o Reliance on agriculture
- Little differentiation – sameness
- Collective consciousness
o Shared sets of beliefs, norms and ideas
- Material element: people are alike
- Subjective element: people think alike

Durkheim: organic solidarity
- Modern (industrial) society
- Specialization/high degree of differentiation/division of labor
o Less self-sufficient, more reliability on others

, - Individual consciousness
- Interdependence

CLIP 1.2: FORMS OF SOLIDARITY – A SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Forms of solidarity
- Human solidarity
o Ties between us as human beings
o More naturalistic foundation
 Family ties, blood relations
- Social solidarity
o Cohesive element in society
o Integrative mechanism
- Political solidarity
o Standing up for their shared interests
 Collectively arguing and active role taking
- Civic solidarity
o Welfare state solidarity
o Welfare state distributes resources
o Normative
 Critiques
- There does not seem to be much of a distinction between the
subjects and objects of solidarity
o Unclear who is being solidaristic to who
o Are we talking about giving or receiving solidarity?
- Assumption that each of these four forms of solidarity is somehow
exclusive
o Solidarity can also be inclusive

Exclusive vs. inclusive solidarity
- Exclusionary ingroup solidarity
o = solidarity that exists between a group of people, based on
shared identity, common interests or social-cultural or
territorial heritage
o Than it excludes those who do not share that identity
- Inclusionary outgroup solidarity
o = solidaristic with groups/individuals who do have different
identities, interests, or social/territorial heritage
- EX refugees from Ukraine vs. other countries
o Exclusionary ingroup solidarity  exclusion of other refugees
o Inclusionary outgroup solidarity  Ukrainian refugees are
welcome
 What solidarity entails changes across time and socio-cultural contexts
 When does solidarity become contested and debated?
 Social identifications, interests, and socio-cultural contexts (power
relations, scarcity of sources and media) triggers or thrives social
justice and solidarity as well as a form of boundary drawing between
us and them

, With whom are we solidaristic?
- Citizenship rights  ‘we’ is defined by the application of citizenship
rights
o = citizens’ rights to have basic needs fulfilled, as a right of
citizenship, rather than charity
 We are recognized as citizens of a nation’s state
o Social citizenship rights = minimum standard of living
 EX right of employment and education, housing and tax
benefits etc.
 Differ across welfare states
o Civil citizenship rights = define who is included and excluded
 Guarantee our right to a quality under the law
- Boundary drawing = who deserves our protection and who doesn’t?
o At a time where demand for protection is high  demand to
pay really close attention to the way in which we are
distributing welfare resources
 Macro-level example
o Not only culture, ethnicity or race, but also in other roots of
identification  gender, age, sexual orientation etc.
o Tells us about inclusion and exclusion

CLIP 1.3: THE SOCIAL IDENTITY APPROACH: THE BASICS
Social Identity Approach
- Individual Identity vs. social Identity
o Individual  idiosyncratic, what makes you unique
o Social  group based, the group that you belong to
- Ingroups vs. outgroups
o Based on social identities
o “Us” vs. “them”
- Minimal group paradigm
o Experiment: people are allocated into groups on the basis of
meaningless arbitrary criteria (eye color, blue/red caps)
o Creating a group is easy
o When you are assigned to a group, you start acting as a group
- Functions of groups:
o Uncertainty reduction/sense-making
 Guidance in social world, how to act, who you can trust
o Affiliation/need to belong
 Not being able to affiliate has severe psychological and
sociological consequences
o (Optimal distinctiveness)
 Inclusion
 Need for positive distinctiveness, feeling unique 
individuality
 Mid-size groups  feel part of a group, but also feel like
individual
o Striving for positive self-concept