Preview

Ferdinand Tonnies

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
555 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ferdinand Tonnies
According to the sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies there is two main types of societies. There is Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Both are German words. Gemeinschaft means commune or community. Gesellscaft means association. Overall, gemeinschaft relates to a small community were everyone knows one another by a first name basis. Gesellschaft relates to a more urban society were relationships are more impersonal. In a gemeinschaft society everyone knows everyone else. All the people play a role and they all support each other. There is a strong sense of togetherness in a gemeinschaft. On the other hand in a gesellschaft, people know each other on an impersonal level. They also don't have a strong sense of togetherness and they don't work as one big group. There are both advantages and disadvantages living in a gemeinschaft. The advantages are: safety, friendship, strong bonds with other members and there is always support. A gemeinschaft is safe because it's a smaller community and everyone trusts one another. A gemeinschaft is less likely to have the same problems that an urban area would. Like: gangs, drugs, homicides, and rape. By living in a gemeinschaft you would make very close friends. Since there are a small number of people, you get to know everyone really well. When somebody is having trouble with something, they would always have someone they can turn to who they can trust. Since it is a small group, when someone is sick or something else is wrong, everyone in the town would know. Since everyone knows, the person that is sick is going to get support from many people. Along with the advantages there are also some disadvantages living in a gemeinschaft. These disadvantages are: little privacy, seeing the same people everyday, and its tough to broaden your horizons. There is very little privacy in a gemeinschaft. If you have a problem that you want nobody to know, it is hard to hide because everyone knows you at a personal level. Once

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many important statments in the Preamble of the Constitution today. Like fairness, your health, and many more. But which ones are more important or less important. There is quite a bit of important statements in the Preamble of the Constitution which makes it pretty diffucult to answer.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    characterized by formal institutions bound by impersonal relationships. Specifically, the boundaries of gesellschaft become clear when examining how a community reacts to this impersonal relationship. In other words,one must ask to what degree are people willing to sacrifice the affectionate familial relationships of gemeinschaft for the greater good found in gesellschaft.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Colin QCF Unit 311

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Individuals are able to be part of a community with a sense of belonging, avoiding isolation and loneliness.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    What is a community? To many it is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage. For many this is an abstract term. Many people don’t exactly know what a community is. It can be felt or touched and sure enough it can’t be seen. Society also plays a role in this relative and abstract term of community. Meaning, the body of human beings generally, associated or viewed as members of a community. Amitai Etzioni in his article “The New Community” introduces and compares the ideas of two distinct types of social relations, “gemeinschaft” and “gesellschaft” and argues for the necessity of both to maintain the social foundations of morality. The German words “gemeinschaft” and “gesellschaft”, are terms used by German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies, refer to “community” and “society” respectively.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit 7 Sociology

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sociology is the study of society and different social structure within, social structure are large groups within society such as;…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    King Ferdinand

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Below is a letter which King Ferdinand sent along with Columbus on his second voyage to Haiti. It was to be communicated to the Taino/Arawak Indians. It is a fascinating document. The King wants the Indians to acknowledge the Christian religion and God, and to accept the authority of the King of Spain. The letter is a mix of promises of benefits that will come to them, but quickly followed up with the direst of threats if they do no comply.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Boston Irish

    • 29910 Words
    • 120 Pages

    society or group. Some groups in a society may be assimilating as others are maintaining (or…

    • 29910 Words
    • 120 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The simplest way of describing what society is – a group of people who share a defined territory or culture. This is people who live amongst each other but people usually stereotype different parts of society. A typical sociologist will explain this further by saying that it is also the social structure and interactions of a person/group of people. Social structure is the patterns of behaviour and relationships within one specific group of people. Therefore the theory that one type of sociologist will put forward is that society is not just people and the cultures that they have amongst the community, but it is also peoples relationships and interactions that go on between the community which build up a society.…

    • 601 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Manage group living

    • 3758 Words
    • 14 Pages

    The benefits in group living is having companionship/friendship and plenty of activities that they can attend with individuals they know and live with, still enabling them to have their own space and privacy if they so wish.…

    • 3758 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tonnies viewed small towns as the model for Gemeinschaft. In a Gemeinschaft, each person is embedded in a close-knit network of relatives and friends. Members of the community have a common ancestry and common values, aspirations, and traditions, as well as many common roles. Shared histories, common activities, and frequent face-to-face relations help to create strong social and emotional bonds. In a Gemeinschaft community, people tend to remain what they were born to be. Most individuals live and die in the same small area. As a result, people think of their identity in terms of their place within the community. Tonnies concept of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, is considered as one of the “discipline 's most enduring and fruitful concepts for studying social change" (Bender, 17 as cited in…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Being part of a group can give an individual a sense of security, a boost to their self-esteem and a feeling of belonging. They may see themselves as being part of an 'in-group'. Being part of a group that is seen as being better than others (an 'in-group'), can create a bond between the members. People of different races or religions, or rival gangs, would be seen as being the 'out-group'.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    sociology notes

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Social groups- are made up of individuals who share something from physical space to values and morals…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a book that has gone through more than six editions in multiple languages. This book conveys the principles of Kürwille (roughly rational will) and Wesenwille (roughly natural will) and how they appear in the Gemeinschaft (roughly community) and the Gesellschaft (roughly society). The Wesenwille appears in the Gemeinschaft “which is maintained by traditional rules and a universal sense of solidarity which fits the organic theory of social union”(Britannica Online Encyclopedia) In the Kürwille based Gesellschaft, rational self- interest is the stronger element. This theory is the one of the first of its kind, however, the notion of kürwille has shown up in Thomas Hobbes’s Behemoth and Elements of Law, Natural and Polotic. In the community, people share common bonds with traditions, objectives, or beliefs. “A good example of Gemeinschaft would be a church or other religious institution” (Ferdinand Toennies Theory: Overview and Explanation). The people that attend this church are all there because of a bond, in this case their religion and other beliefs. In the Gesellschaft relationships are more formal and impersonal. The people will not know each other’s names but still respond to them in a polite way. The Gemienschaft and the Gesellshaft are two separate concepts with separate ideas and mannerisms. These ideas were revolutionary at the time because it…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In speaking of the systematic study of relationships among people of Sociology, the assumption being that behavior is influenced by social, political, occupational and intellectual groupings and by the particular settings in which individuals find themselves. It is the study of human association and group life. It describes and seeks to explain social processes that give rise to, sustain, and change our social world and us. Some topics in Sociology include conformity and deviance, freedom and transcendence in the social order, stratification, power, race, gender, and social change.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Country living is relaxing and private, compared to living in the city where it is constantly loud and anyone can show up at the doorstep. Country living and city living have many different aspects. There are many advantages and disadvantages to life in the country or to life in the city. The advantages of living in the country definitely outweigh the advantages of living in the city.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays