The 3 types of solidarity (explained and with examples)

Solidarity is a concept that we can understand from different perspectives. At first glance, you might think that it is an essential value that all human beings share from their nature. This can be seen through the support of others that is given through words and actions.

On the other hand, solidarity can imply empathy with those who are similar to the group to which the subject belongs, but at the same time it can involve going beyond differences, connecting with people of different ethnicity, social class, or nationality, among other characteristics.

Next, an exploration of the history of this concept will be carried out and we will see what are the different types of solidarity that we can observe in everyday life.

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What is solidarity?

The concept of solidarity begins to develop from the legal field in moral and social philosophy. Various philosophers worked around this concept, such as Cicero, Aristotle, the Stoics, the scholastic tradition, Rosseau, the English school of the ethics of sympathy, among others.

Solidarity has a fundamental origin related to the law, with the concept in solidum, which means the legal obligation of a relationship where all debtors must respond for the debt or commitment they have acquired. From this concept, the nature of solidarity begins to be revealed, where everyone is responsible for the individual, and where the individual is responsible for everyone. One might think then that solidarity expresses two things at the same time: the union and bond between people and individual reciprocal responsibility for each one and for the whole.

The concept of solidarity was also studied by author Peter Kropotkin, who stated that solidarity arises in the context of cooperation in societies, which is essential for the survival of any society and species. For this author, solidarity is a fundamental component of mutual aid. For the author, solidarity is not something that is born from the desire for retribution but from an instinctive desire to help other people.

Nevertheless, one of the main influencers in the development of this concept was David Émile Durkheim, who allows us to understand that solidarity is ambiguous in two senses: on the one hand, it is a social fact, while on the other it can be conceived as an ideological aspiration.

This concept of solidarity goes beyond the traditional notion of the concept as something that is demonstrated through actions and words, being also something that is necessary for maintain society and that can be seen reflected in the actions and moments in which it would be thought that solidarity itself does not exist, for example, in robberies, murders, or acts of corruption. These actions and moments make it possible to make visible the true principles that generate cohesion within society and for which it is desired to work.

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The most important types of solidarity

Durkheim's development of the concept of solidarity allows us to understand various types of solidarity that will be explored below.

1. Mechanical solidarity

This type of solidarity could be classified as evolutionarily prior. The fact that this is usually developed part of the identification with others.

It usually occurs in the middle of small communities that share close characteristics, such as ethnicity, religion, social class, or culture.

It can be considered as a very old type of solidarity even though it can still be found present in the context of modern communities, being the basis for solidarity within the family or contexts shared by various persons. This type of solidarity is more related to the classification of solidarity as fact.

An example of this concept is found in farming communities, where there are no major differences between people and the same social fabric is configured based on affinity. In this type of society there would be no possibility for marginalization, and if it did exist it would be minimal.

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2. Organic solidarity

This kind of solidarity is visible in cooperation and is subsequent to the social division of labor. This concept is related to the arrangement of various organs that act for the overall functioning of a system. This type of solidarity is more related to the ideological dimension of the concept, because social integration and cooperation between different people amid differences after having overcome differences works as an ideal moral.

An example of this kind of solidarity can be found amidst the societies in which people have specialized in a particular way in specific tasks that are carried out and that contribute to the well-being of other people, for example, people can work as teachers, public servants, engineers, security guards, or health professionals within the same society, who mutually contribute to the well-being of others who may not share characteristics with each other but who belong to the same society.

This kind of solidarity can be seen as characteristic in societies where the community-creating social media characteristic of mechanical society has been overcome.

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3. Social solidarity

This type of solidarity could be considered as derived from the notion of solidarity developed by Kropotkin in relation to the natural tendency of the human being to help other people instinctively and without the pursuit of another type of interest.

This can be visible in the formation of religious and social communities whose main mission is focused on collaboration with other people who do not have similar characteristics, such as the case of the Mennonite community that has sought to mediate in the midst of different internal or international armed conflicts developed in the world.

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Why is it socially important to promote solidarity between people?

From the various problems presented today in relation to racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and internal armed conflicts that various countries suffer, highlights the importance of the value of solidarity for the actual society.

Solidarity becomes an element that is shown through actions that contribute to the well-being of people with whom similar characteristics are shared, but It also begins to be visible to the extent that it works for the well-being of people who do not necessarily share characteristics. with us from actions that arise from our daily and professional tasks, as well as in other Sometimes this solidarity emerges voluntarily towards people or situations in which it appears in a "Innate".

The issue of solidarity acquires importance in contexts such as the conflict in places like Afghanistan today and the international reaction to it. This kind of situations makes it possible to think about Durkheim's approaches, who establishes that critical situations that occur in Societies make it possible to rescue the principles that govern them or to which they are ideally oriented, in this case, a principle of solidarity.

The Solidarity It can also be seen in the midst of the creation of social groups that seek the mutual protection of their members. that they have been affected by specific conditions in which the affectations have been similar for the subjects; for example in the case of workers who have been affected by the same regimes in companies, or people who have experienced similar treatment as a result of their ethnicity, culture, or orientation sexual.

In these cases, solidarity works as mutual support and a way of generating well-being among themselves to stay in hostile contexts, thus giving rise to the potential development of collectives and movements social.

The theme of solidarity also acquires importance in relation to bioethics, where solidarity not only extends to human beings but also begins to include animals and plants, reinforcing the importance of treatment from the beginning Kantian. This concept would also be expanded around human beings, thus being one of the pillars of this field today. Some people who have worked around bioethics today point out its importance insofar as it allows focusing on the human being as a person and on the dignity of him, it allows place oneself in the position of the other person and in their own suffering and experience, highlighting the importance of connecting solidarity with the responsibility that one has in front of the the rest.

Another important way in which solidarity could be identified and its importance highlighted today is in the context of the Covid pandemic, where the development of various solidarity actions is necessary, which can range from the development of personal practices of individual isolation to avoid the contagion of close people, as well as it can be manifested at a much more general level in the context of international collaboration to comply with the vaccination of the population world.