Modern solidarity and administrative repression

Modern society is based on the predominance of organic solidarity over mechanical solidarity and, consequently, on the predominance of the law, which ensures cooperation between autonomous subjects from repressive law, which sanctions, through penalty, any deviation from the standards of the common conscience. Modern society is “civilized”, i.e. it is firstly and foremost based on “civil” law, the repressive law only being exceptional, which translates into three principles: that of the subsidiarity of criminal law, that of the necessity and legality of offences and penalties, and that of the additional protection of individual freedom when the subject is criminally charged. The consequence thereof is that, in modern liberal democracies, all repressive law is criminal, that any charge which may lead to the application of a repressive sanction is a criminal charge and that the law-maker cannot assign to the administration the competence regarding the application of repressive sanctions. Under these circumstances, the transformation of some repressive norms into norms of administrative law is a violation of the fundamental principles that structure the legal order of modern liberal states. Nonetheless, this type of practice is becoming more common. In order to ensure individual freedom, this tendency must be corrected. As politicians are not willing to do so, naturally this is a task for the judicial courts, that can rely for this endeavour on the European Court of Human Rights’ constructive jurisprudence.

Flying Solidarity as an Introductory Lesson in Social Theory

Although students rely on social solidarity in their everyday lives, they generally fail to acknowledge its existence. An active learning class exercise, conducted within approximately 35 minutes, introduces sociology students to Emile Durkheim’s concept of solidarity and the distinction between its mechanical and organic forms. Some groups of students perform the task of creating and flying paper airplanes under the pretense of organic solidarity, and other groups perform the same task under the pretense of mechanical solidarity. Through reflection on their experiences and discussion with members of other groups, students begin to identify nuances of each type of solidarity. An evaluation of this exercise indicates that those who participate in it can describe the distinction between mechanical and organic solidarity and their respective associations with gemeinschaft and gesellschaft better than those exposed to a traditional lesson on the topic can.

Upaya Hukum Notaris Atas Sanksi Pemberhentian Sementara Oleh Majelis Pengawas Pusat Notaris (Studi Putusan Nomor: 43/G/2011/PTUN-JKT)

This article or writing aims to reveal the form of solidarity of the Madurese community in Watu Ulo Hamlet in the Pethik Laut tradition/ceremony. Researchers took this location as a research point because based on previous research, the literature on social solidarity in traditional community traditions is still limited. In addition, the researchers also studied the Pethik Laut in Watu Ulo Hamlet, Ambulu, Jember because so far the research on the Pethik Laut in Jember is still small. The problem is focused on the form of social solidarity of the Madurese community in Watu Ulo when carrying out this tradition. To approach this problem, Emile Durkheim's theoretical reference on the concept of social solidarity is used. The data were collected through the synthesis of online interviews and literature study, and analyzed qualitatively. This study concludes that attachment to values and social reality also forms solidarity. For example, there is a form of social solidarity among the Madurese in this tradition, namely solidarity in determining and preparing ceremonies, such as withdrawing funds, making food, and managing activities. Thus, the social solidarity of the Madurese community is included in the Durkheim type of mechanical solidarity.

Pethik Laut: Wujud Solidaritas Sosial Masyarakat Madura di Dusun Watu Ulo Kecamatan Ambulu

This article or writing aims to reveal the form of solidarity of the Madurese community in Watu Ulo Hamlet in the Pethik Laut tradition/ceremony. Researchers took this location as a research point because based on previous research, the literature on social solidarity in traditional community traditions is still limited. In addition, the researchers also studied the Pethik Laut in Watu Ulo Hamlet, Ambulu, Jember because so far the research on the Pethik Laut in Jember is still small. The problem is focused on the form of social solidarity of the Madurese community in Watu Ulo when carrying out this tradition. To approach this problem, Emile Durkheim's theoretical reference on the concept of social solidarity is used. The data were collected through the synthesis of online interviews and literature study, and analyzed qualitatively. This study concludes that attachment to values and social reality also forms solidarity. For example, there is a form of social solidarity among the Madurese in this tradition, namely solidarity in determining and preparing ceremonies, such as withdrawing funds, making food, and managing activities. Thus, the social solidarity of the Madurese community is included in the Durkheim type of mechanical solidarity.

Civil Society and Pro-Democracy Social Movements: Troubled Relations Within Authoritarian Regimes?

This article tries to conceptually lay down the troubled relations between civil society and social movements within authoritarian regimes. This is done by, first, bringing clarity to the conceptual relationship between civil society and social movement and, then, applying it to the authoritarian context, still theoretically. Following the “hints” of the Eastern European intellectuals of the late 1970s and the 1980s and building on the appropriation of Durkheim’s differentiation between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity, the article distinguishes two types of solidarity: associative solidarity and action and collective solidarity and action. Civil society is proposed to emerge on associative solidarities (and their actions), while social movements build on collective solidarities (and their actions). Furthermore, associative and collective actions are identified to be progressive and transgressive, respectively. Consequently, the proposed theoretical account is applied theoretically to the authoritarian context and several hypotheses are proposed on the relationship between civil society and pro-democracy movement within authoritarian regimes.

Virtual World Solidarity: How Social Solidarity is Built on the Crowdfunding Platform Kitabisa.com

This research examines how social solidarity is formed in cyberspace virtually through the crowdfunding platform Kitabisa.com. This research was conducted using qualitative descriptive methods. The research was carried out through two stages, namely analyzing web content, and after that, a phenomenological stage was carried out to discover how the social solidarity of funders was formed in the crowdfunding of Kitabisa.com. The results of the study found that the development of the crowdfunding movement in Indonesia was on a good track in accordance with the values of social solidarity which involved the community to help each other in the form of social participation based on information and communication technology innovation that was linked through social networking and interactivity in cyberspace. Social solidarity formed through crowdfunding platforms is organic social solidarity. The more modern society is, the more the form of social solidarity produced will be more organic and tend to leave mechanical solidarity.

Between Distancing and Interdependence: The Conflict of Solidarities in the COVID-19 Pandemic

In a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19, different national states around the world have introduced strict measures to regulate social interaction that have affected the interdependence of modern societies. In this article, we argue that this handling of the pandemic produces a conflict of solidarities that can be interpreted by expanding Durkheim’s classic formulations (organic and mechanical solidarity) to include the distinction between fragmentary solidarity (based on distancing) and ordinary solidarity (based on empathy and equal treatment). The conflict is triggered precisely by the introduction of fragmentary solidarity. Through this conceptualization, we identify different paradoxes and problems that the pandemic poses for present-day society and analyze how it attempts to overcome them through a generalization of ordinary solidarity. The paper concludes that the conflict of solidarities that characterizes the pandemic is not a passing phenomenon. Its anchorage in the complexity and interdependence of contemporary technological, social, and natural conditions points to its persistence.

A Return to Mechanical Solidarity

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic brought many changes to daily life in Canada. One such behavior that surfaced was what could be defined as ‘panic hoarding,’ namely, the purchasing of items such as toilet paper, sanitizer and disinfectant in far greater quantities per person than other times, which risked the creation of shortages across communities. In order to understand such behavior, this article will use ideas from Émile Durkheim to analyze the relationship of social media and its impact on the behavior of panic hoarding. In particular, Durkheim’s concepts of collective consciousness show how social media provides enough impetus to make the case that this pandemic is better defined by mechanical than organic solidarity. We can see social media as the vehicle through which collective consciousness can be experienced, and more immediately so at this time, insofar as we see how it influences panic hoarding behavior. We can also see that social media’s use of memes can be likened to totems, and that they give clues to the values we hold at this time.