Small societies cohere through likeness; complex ones cohere through interdependence, and the two bind and fail in different ways.
Durkheim's 1893 argument. The uncomfortable implication is that modern solidarity depends on interdependence rather than agreement, so shared values are less load-bearing than usually assumed.
In practice
- A village where everyone farms coheres through shared work; a city coheres because nobody can make their own shoes.
- A small team bound by shared background fragments as it specialises, and the new bond is dependence rather than likeness.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change