Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

Abstract

Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft are concepts originally developed by the German sociologist Ferdinand Toennies (1855-1937). Toennies was one of several European social thinkers during this time period who presents an "evolutionary" view of society. The terms represent two, seemingly opposite concepts (thesis, antithesis) developed by Toennies as he examined change in social relationships as populations grew and urban centers of social activity developed. Toennies' theory is among one of many theories of social evolution developed around the same time period. Elements of Toennies' gemeinschaft-gesellschaft concepts have commonalities with the theories of Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Simmel, and Max Weber. Toennies' theory is open to a number of criticisms, not the least of which is its Eurocentricity. Though the actual terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft are more often found in European, particularly German, sociological theories and research today, the concepts underlying Toennies' theory of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft forms of social structure are important ideas in sociological theory and applied research across the globe. The concepts of the gemeinschaft and gesellschaft ideal types of social relationships have been extended and applied in fields such as rural and urban studies, demographic studies, social work and community development as well as racial, ethnic, and multicultural and international relationships.

Overview

The terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft are, originally, German words used by the German social theorist Ferdinand Toennies (1855-1937) in his 1887 publication Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft; it was later translated into English and published in the U.S. as Community and Society (1963) and as Community and Civil Society (2001). "Community" and "society," respectively, are good approximate translations of the two terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, where communities are thought of as less populous and more rural while societies are thought of as larger groupings of communities in more populous, urban social centers.

Toennies was one of several European social thinkers during this time who presented an "evolutionary" view of society. Evolutionary theories of society hold social change as forward moving from earlier, simpler forms to more complex forms of social organization. Toennies did not originate evolutionary theories of social change; such lines of thinking had been circulating and published in European thought for many years. However, Toennies is credited with refining the sociological concepts associated with gemeinschaft and gesellschaft.

Toennies posited gemeinschaft communities as an early form of social organization. In such communities, relationships most often took the form of simple and informal social agreements between two individuals or many groups of two individuals, forming small groups or collectives. Gesellschaft societies, however, are composed of more complex economic bonds and more formal social contracts. As populations expand and communities become more urbanized, ties between social collectives come to dominate and organize social life. Individuals in gemeinschaft societies become more and more entwined in a growing number of social contracts.

Toennies' Theory of Social Evolution. Toennies' theory is an example of a dialectical approach to social analytical theory. Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft are two seemingly opposite concepts (thesis, antithesis) developed by Toennies as he examined change in social relationships over time. The third element of the dialectic, synthesis, consists of the conclusions drawn from his examination of social change.

Toennies developed his conclusions about social change using the historico-comparative method, comparing historical accounts of society with his own observations of society. Widely used in Toennies' time, this analytical method continues to be used in the social sciences.

The two concepts are an example of the ideal type as a theoretical tool. By making clear distinctions between gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, Toennies distinguished between differing ideal-type classifications of social relationships and changes in those relationships over time. Ideal types are hypothetical sets of characteristics or attributes; cases exactly fitting the ideal type might not be found in the course of observation and investigation.

In his work, he joined a long line of social thinkers examining the idea of social evolution. While social evolutionary thought does draw some analogies between social and biological organisms, social evolutionary thinking preceded Darwinian theories of biological evolution by a number of years (Mitchell, 1968). After publication of Darwin's famous 1859 treatise On the Origins of Species, such lines of thought about society became known as "social Darwinism." Although Toennies himself may not have thought of his work as a theory of social evolution, modern social theorists usually classify his work as an example of such theories.

Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft & Social Interaction. Toennies examined a number of differing areas of social relationships and interpersonal interactions. As individuals and groups trade, barter, and exchange goods and services, relationships between individuals become a form of social agreement or contract, delineating obligations, privileges, rights, and authority among and between persons. Social contracts are agreements between individuals or social collectives, e.g., families, tribes, governments, and business organizations.

According to Toennies, gemeinschaft communities were an early form of social organization. In such communities, relationships most often took the form of simple and informal social agreements between two individuals or many groups of two individuals, forming small groups or collectives (Mitchel, 1968; Tilman, 2004). Connections between people arise out of geographical vicinity and circumstances of birth. Interactions take place among individuals in daily, face-to-face proximity, or copresence. Individuals have little choice in matters of social relationships, with few sources of necessities for survival and few privileges, rights, and obligations to be allocated among relatively small numbers of individuals. Moreover, survival of the many often depends on the survival of a few. Self-interest and collective interests are generally closely aligned.

Gesellschaft societies, however, are composed of more complex economic bonds and social contracts. Over time, as populations expand and communities become more urbanized, more formal ties between social collectives come to dominate and organize social life. Individuals in gemeinschaft societies become more and more entwined in a growing number of social contracts.

However, as populations increase, more economic goods and services are needed and more opportunities arise for varying alignments or configurations of obligations, rights, and privileges to be allocated through many social contracts. This allows for self-interested planning about social contracts, where self-interest does not necessarily closely align with the interests of the various collectives of which individuals may be associated: family, tribe, city, state, and nation, for example. Social interaction becomes more remote, principally guided by the authority, mores, norms, and laws (i.e., social agreements) among the growing number of social collectives of which individuals are members (Mitchell, 1968; Tilman, 2004). The connections between these collectives may be far removed from daily life. Gesellschaft societies are such complex arrangements of various associations and alignments of social collectives.

Below is a summary table contrasting the two classifications, appearing originally in Tilman (2004, p. 585).

Any conclusion that "regulatory and welfare state collectivism" is the only possible synthesis of the two forms of social relationships is open to challenge and argumentation and is the subject of much debate. Alternative forms of social organization provide fodder for on-going discussion in governmental and international relations (Rodrìguez-Pose & Storper, 2006).

Other Theories of Social Evolution. Toennies was one among many European social theorists examining social evolutionary thought. These theories, though varied in detail, share some commonalities. All social evolutionary theories depict social relationships as moving, between specific points in time, from simple arrangements of social ties between individuals in small populations toward ever more complex alignments of more numerous, diverse, and larger social groups.

Table 2 lists the names of several social evolutionary theorists, working around the same time period as Toennies, and the terms for concepts they developed to describe or explain change over time in forms of social relationships between simple and more complex organization of society.

Later Developments.

Primary & Secondary Social Relationships

Contemporary sociologists make a distinction between primary social relationships and secondary social relationships. Primary, or informal, social relationships are often closely identified with gemeinschaft or rural communities. Primary social relationships are based in interpersonal, face-to-face interaction, or copresence. Secondary relationships, which are more formal and not necessarily occurring in copresence, are more often identified with gesellschaft social organization in urban areas.

Modernization. The process of moving toward more complex forms of social relationships is often referred to as "modernization," which encompasses the social activities and patterns of social relationships resulting from the rise and dominance of industrial production, or the process of "industrialization." A voluminous body of literature in the social sciences, arts, and humanities addresses the myriad aspects of social change that have occurred in modernization from the global implications to the personal experience of being "modern."

Urbanization. Urbanization is closely related to the concept to modernity, the period in which the most striking processes of modernization have taken place. Urbanization is one of the patterns of social relationships that accompanied the process of industrialization. Urbanization is the process of concentration of populations into geographical areas that serve as "hubs" of social activity. As with modernization, an entire body of literature in the social sciences, arts, and humanities addresses differing features of urbanization. The concept is also found in the literature of more diverse disciplines such as architecture, city and urban planning, epidemiology, and international relations.

Applications of the Concepts.

Rural Sociology

One setting in which the concepts are frequently applied is in studies of rural areas. Rural sociology is a sub-area of sociological research, revolving around investigation of rural populations and patterns of social interaction and relationships in rural areas. Echoing Marx's distinction between agricultural and industrial forms of social organization, some rural sociologists argue that the rural-urban or gemeinschaft-gesellschaft continuum is actually a "farm-nonfarm" distinction (see, for example, Albrecht & Albrecht, 1996).

In the twentieth century, however, farming in Western society became increasingly industrialized, turning "farming" into "agribusiness." One task of rural sociology is to study the differences between social relationships in communities organized around family-owned farms versus those organized around corporate agribusiness.

Urban Studies. Just as rural sociology has carried forward the gemeinschaft-gesellschaft concepts in the study of less populous areas, they also have been extended into the area of urban studies (Vaisey, 2007). Both rural and urban studies make use of demography, the study of changes in human populations. The process of demographic transition, a premise relating human population change to the development of technologies for sustaining population growth, is particularly useful in urban studies.

The field of urban studies not only examines the processes whereby human populations form, grow, and change around urban centers of social activity, but also how people experience urban life and human quality-of-life issues, including the manner in which the geographic layout and ecological significance of constructing urban spaces affect the experience of urban life (Wellman & Leighton, 1979; Forrest & Kearns, 2001).

Some argue that the distinction between "the city" and "the rest of the world" has become blurred due to urban encroachment. Urban life has become so scattered among locales and networks of relationships that it even reaches into areas generally thought of as rural (Amin & Thrift, 2002).

Social Services, Social Work, & Community Development. Gemeinschaft-gesellschaft concepts can be found in the social service area known as community development, which focuses on how to best provide social services, including health care services, in differing communities. Whether viewed primarily as as cultural, as did Toennies, or as networks of relationships (see, for example, Wellman & Leighton, 1979), the differences in social relationships between urban and rural communities can affect the effectiveness of governmental and nongovernmental programs addressing social issues such as poverty, health care, public health, and social isolation (Salamon, Sokolowski, & Anheier, 2000). The concepts have been used to study the delivery of social services from Nigeria (Erinosho, 1994) to the U.S. (Marsland, 1996), and many points in between.

The gemeinschaft-gesellschaft dichotomy also has been applied as an analytical and explanatory framework for identifying social work education and practices relevant to providing services to immigrant and migrant populations (Kornbeck, 2001).

Racial, Multicultural, & International Relations. In both gemeinschaft and gesellschaft forms of social organization, race, ethnicity, and nationality enter into social relationships. Rather than being strictly cultural properties, civic and ethnic forms of nationalism point to different positions of power held by groups and nations in their respective social contexts. Pluralistic relations are often produced through conflict and struggle between the dominant group and various minorities (Winter, 2007). Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft concepts have even been applied in the study of war (see, for example, Zack-Williams, 2006).

However, more benign processes, based in equality and tolerance, can also bring about pluralistic multiculturalism through a "just balance" between individual freedom and communal solidarity, emphasizing cultural and social commonalities (Winter, 2007; Byers, 2008).

Explorations of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft in all of these disciplines are often done through the lens of Marxist or communist theory (e.g. Adler, 2015 and Diesen, 2018). In these cases, the analyses frequently work on the assumption that gemeinschaft is a healthier or more desirable type of social organization than gesellschaft, although Toennies claimed that he did not intend to valorize one over the other.

Viewpoints

Eurocentrism. A common criticism of the concepts of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft is that Toennies' thought was distinctly European and, therefore, ethnocentric (i.e., Eurocentric). This is a criticism frequently aimed at his European contemporaries as well. Essentially, the claim of Eurocentrism is that the work of European theorists is flawed by assumptions based in and largely unique to European culture and that, often, their observations are almost exclusively of Western civilization.

Countercriticisms of Eurocentrism are difficult, as Toennies and other European theorists certainly draw from long traditions of Western philosophical thought. The criticism of Eurocentrism usually revolves around the question of whether or not European theories of social evolution hold that gesellschaft social structure is more advanced or preferable to gemeinschaft.

Which Is Better? Although Toennies professed not to prefer either gemeinschaft or gesellschaft forms of social organization, his work does exhibit some bias toward favoring smaller, rural communities (Mitchell, 1968). Perhaps his own rural beginnings lent a nostalgic flavor to his observations.

Some would argue that the gemeinschaft type is overly idealized and romanticized. Life in such communities is more difficult and harsher than Toennies' account would lead us to believe. On the other hand, others hold that gesellschaft forms of society and concomitant industrialization, modernization, and urbanization have raised standards of living and improved the human condition.

Yet, close analysis points toward both individual and collective benefits and drawbacks in each pattern. As noted above, ideal types are not necessarily observed in the real world. Sociologists recognize that aspects of both gemeinschaft and gesellschaft patterns of relationships can be found in many geographical areas, including those with large, urban concentrations of industrial enterprises and populations. The usefulness of Toennies' insights is found in the discussion and criticism of each of the two patterns of relationships and comparisons to actual observations.

This discussion and criticism spurs a number of sociological inquiries and applications. The task of sociology is not to decide which form of social relationships is better, but to form theories of social change and collect data to describe and explain the ways in which such changes affect the organization and experience of the social.

The Critique from Psychology. One criticism to which Toennies' concepts is vulnerable is that of failure to adequately distinguish between gemeinschaft and gesellschaft as psychological or social categorizations. Written at a time when the distinctions between the two were practically nonexistent, such a distinction would not have occurred to him. For Toennies, the principal motivation of human action was human "will" (Mitchell, 1968).

This brings the argument into the purview of social psychology, which recognizes a reciprocal or reflexive relationship between the individual and society. In the area of social psychology, as in sociology in general, the smallest unit of analysis is the individual in his or her social setting.

Modernity-Postmodernity. Another criticism of Toennies' concepts is that his theory is applicable only within the "modern era," the age of modernity (Bonner, 1998). The gist of this argument is that, increasingly, global society is moving away from modern, industrial rationality into an era of postmodernity wherein knowledge and information have become economic goods (Böhme, 2002). In other words, the gemeinschaft-gesellschaft typology is outdated.

Still others, however, counter that postmodernity is simply a late stage of moderity (see, for example, Latour, 1993). Indeed, patterns of interaction are increasingly centered around knowledge, information, and service activities. Yet, while some new aspects of interpersonal and social interaction may be emerging in this later stage of modernity, the underlying patterns of both gemeinschaft-gesellschaft social relationships still persist (Bonner, 1998; Rodrìguez-Pose & Storper, 2006; Vaisey, 2007).

All in all, as global changes in patterns of population concentration, industrial activities, postindustrial activities, and cross-cultural exchange take place, social scientists may yet conclude that at least some societies truly are moving beyond modernity. However, this does not indicate that gemeinschaft-gesellschaft patterns of interpersonal social interaction will completely disappear. With the global growth of telecommunications services, the concepts have even been used to look at "virtual" online communities (Memmi, 2006).

Conclusion

Though the actual terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft are more often found in European, particularly German, sociological theories and research, the concepts underlying Toennies' original theory of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft forms of social relationships are important ideas that have been extended in sociological theory and applied in research across the globe.

Terms & Concepts

Copresence: Interpersonal interaction between two or more individuals in the same time and space, face-to-face.

Demographic Transition: Theoretical relation of human population change to the development of technologies for sustaining population growth.

Dialectic: A philosophical approach to theory formation that makes use of two seemingly opposite concepts (thesis, antithesis) to form a continuum (synthesis) of ideas.

Gemeinschaft: Less populous, more rural communities. Indicates community.

Gesellschaft: Complex, populous, urban societies. Indicates society.

Industrialization: Processes associated with the rise and growth of factory systems of economic productivity.

Modernization: Processes associated with the rise of the "modern" era (modernity).

Postmodernity: Processes associated with the increasing growth of non-factory (postindustrial) systems of economic productivity.

Social Contract: Informal and formal social agreements between individuals or social collectives; formal social contracts form the basis for civil society.

Social Evolution: Theories about social change progressing over time from simpler to more complex forms of social relationships.

Urbanization: The process of concentration of populations into geographical areas that serve as "hubs" of social activity.

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Suggested Reading

Bruhn, J. (2005). The sociology of community connections. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Economic wave makers. (2016). Rural Cooperatives, 83(6), 14–15. Retrieved from EBSCO online database, Business Source Ultimate http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=119712461&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Jerolmack, C. (2012). Toward a sociology of nature. Sociological Quarterly, 53, 501-505. Retrieved November 5, 2013 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=80204797

Marcuse, P., & van Kempen, R. (2000). Cities and towns. Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing.

Paddison, R. (2001). Handbook of urban studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.