part of my thesis...

This is a section of my thesis that I thought would provide some background for future discussions of virtual communities.


One of the founding texts in the history of community theory was written by German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies in 1887. His work Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft presents a sociological theory of community by making a distinction between community and society. His idea of Gemeinschaft (community) was based on the subjective or essential will of the members. That is, its very existence is based on the consciousness of belonging together and the affirmation of mutual dependence. This shared togetherness results from the essential will, in which individual members see themselves as means to serve the goals of the group.

This characterization makes Gemeinschaft fundamentally different from Gesellschaft. For Tonnies Gesellschaft (society) is a grouping based on rational or arbitrary will. This type of group refers to purposefully types of relationships. Rational will is characterized by an individual seeing the social group a a means to further his individual goals. Therefore, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are essentially opposite in terms of an individual’s means for becoming part of a social group. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are each characterized by different, mostly opposite, components, as seen below. [1]

Gemeinschaft
• strong identity with community
• emotionalism/sentiment
• traditionalism
• holistic relationships with other members
• Example: families, neighborhoods

Gesellschaft
• no identification with community
• affective neutrality
• legalism
• segmental conceptions of other members
• Example: company, state in modern society

The distinction between and Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society) represents and important foundation for understanding for community theory and community studies. The ideal distinction, however, is never completely seen in practice; most social groups a a combination of the two ideals.


[1] Dr. Cindy Jardine. Introduction to community studies. Dept. of Human Ecology, University of Alberta,
2006.