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| Since the agricultural revolution,
societies have been getting more complex, with increasing division of labour,
increased hierarchy of power, prestige and wealth, increased proportion
of interaction being between roles, or partial people, instead of between
whole people. |
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| Tönnies called this
a shift between gemeinschaft (community) and
gesellschaft
(society). |
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| Today we see varying degrees of gemeinschaft
and
gesellschaft in organisations, communities and societies. |
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| The overall trend is still towards
less gemeinschaft and more gesellschaft; towards more urbanism. |
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| Biologically, we humans have not
changed much in over 50,000 years, yet the agricultural revolution, and
its resulting increase in social complexity, ie in urbanization, has been
going on for about 12,000 years. |
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| It appears we evolved into a species
that was designed socially to live in small groups where everybody knows
each other, and where we know each other as whole people rather than as
roles. |
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| We feel more comfortable
in gemeinschaft than in gesellschaft. |
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| This is consistent with another generality.
We tend to be more comfortable with things we know or with which we are
familiar, people, things, places, than with the unfamiliar. “Better the
devil we know, . . . “ goes the old proverb or cliché. |
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| So while our society is getting more
formal, more regulated, more cold, more
gesellschaft, we are inventing
new ways to make our lives to more resemble gemeinschaft. |
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| In an informal way, we see this in
the cities, where we know the deli clerk as a single role, sales person,
we learn her or his name, and use it when we go into the deli to get our
morning snack or lunch. |
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| Some people learn and use the names
of their bus drivers, postal clerks, and others in service industries that
they see on a regular basis. |
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| Along with that we
find the creation and development of constructed communities. |
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| Often these are voluntary associations
where members share a common interest or goals. |
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| Clubs, associations, congregations,
sports clubs, service clubs like Rotary or Lions, chess clubs, gay pride,
model railroad clubs, campaigns like the United Way, unions, political
parties, discussion groups, all of these can be, and often are, constructed
communities. |
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| At the extreme end of such associations
are the temporary celebrations of national football games, the Grey Cup,
or hockey games, the Stanley Cup, or Commonwealth and Olympic Games events. |
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| In the streets people often wear
clothing they do not usually wear. They greet each other, although
strangers, and shout their pleasure at "their" team winning, or their disappointment
at "their" team losing. |
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| With the advent of the Internet,
and rapid communication, electronically, around the world, new associations
are being formed where there are no geographic boundaries. |
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| While all of our communities and
societies are becoming more complex, with increased
gesellschaft,
at the local and individual level, we are responding with a counteraction.
We can safely call this “neo gemeinschaft.” |
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