Community, rural and urban life in Pakistan

Sociology · Structure, order and change. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

A community is a group of people living in a locality who share a sense of belonging (MacIver's two marks: locality and community sentiment). Tönnies contrasted two types of social life. Gemeinschaft is close, personal and based on kinship and tradition; Gesellschaft is impersonal and based on contract and self-interest. Villages lean towards the first, cities towards the second, with many cases in between.

Rural Pakistan is usually described through kinship and land. The biradari ties families of common descent by mutual help and obligation. The extended family, the council of elders and the landlord and tenant relationship shape daily life. Typical problems are poor schooling and health care, small holdings and debt.

Rules to remember

Ferdinand Tönnies, 'Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft' (1887): community versus association.
Durkheim: mechanical solidarity (likeness) versus organic solidarity (interdependence through division of labour).
Robert Redfield: the folk-urban continuum.
Rural: small, homogeneous, primary ties, farming, informal control. Urban: large, dense, heterogeneous, secondary ties, formal control.
Biradari: patrilineal kin group with reciprocal duties at weddings, funerals and disputes.
Panchayat: village council of elders. Jirga: council of elders among the Pashtuns.
Fragmentation of holdings: land divided among heirs into ever smaller plots.

Common mistake

Mechanical and organic solidarity are often reversed. Mechanical belongs to simple, traditional societies where people are alike; organic belongs to modern societies where people differ and depend on each other.

Worked example

In a village, neighbours help each other at harvest without payment because their families have always done so. In a nearby city, a farmer hires a harvesting firm under a signed agreement. Which of Tönnies' types does each case show?

The village help rests on custom, kinship and personal ties, with no contract.
That is the mark of Gemeinschaft.
The city arrangement rests on a written contract and payment between strangers.
That is the mark of Gesellschaft.

Answer: Village: Gemeinschaft. City: Gesellschaft.

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Community Sociology

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