ABSTRACT
In the study of social phenomena the idea of “solidarity” has been invoked or applied in a variety of situations and contexts. These include communes (Abrams and McCulloch, 1976), the welfare state (Baldwin, 1990), interaction ritual chains (Collins, 1981; 1994), clans and lineages (Fortes, 1945), group obligations and members’ compliance with obligations (Hechter, 1987), communities (Loewy, 1993), governance and management of common-pool-resources (Ostrom, 1990), unity of the poor with the Church in Central America (Sobrino and Pico, 1985), positive and negative interpersonal involvement (Tamney, 1975), the opposite of estrangement (Torrance, 1977) and initiation ceremonies as dramatization of status transitions (Young, 1965). Probably the best known articulation of the idea of solidarity was given by Durkheim (1888), who classified this concept into the two types of “mechanical” and “organic” solidarity.
