Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are sociological categories introduced by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies for two ideal types of human association. The ideas are most fully discussed in his work Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Table of contents 1 Gemeinschaft 2 Gesellschaft 3 References 4 See Also Gemeinschaft Gemeinschaft is an association in which individuals are oriented to the large association as much if not more than to their own self interest. Furthermore, individuals in Gemeinschaft are regulated by common mores, or beliefs about the appropriate behaviour and responsibility of members of the association, to each other and to the association at large; associations marked by "unity of will" (Tönnies, 22). Tönnies saw the family as the most perfect expression of Gemeinschaft, however he expected that Gemeinschaft could be based on shared place and shared belief as well as kinship, and he included globally dispersed religious communities as possible examples of Gemeinschaft. Gesellschaft Gesellschaft on the other hand describes associations in which, for the individual, the larger association never takes on more importance than individual self interest, and lack the same level of shared mores. Gesellschaft is maintained through individuals acting in their own self interest. A modern business is a good example of Gesellschaft, the workers, managers, and owners may have very little in terms of shared orientations or beliefs, they may not care deeply for the product they are making, but it is in all their self interest to come to work to make money, and thus the business continues. Gemeinschaft is often translated as society or civil society. References Ferdinand Tönnies, Community and Civil Society ed. Jose Harris, (Cambridge: 2001) See Also Organic and Mechanical Solidarity This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.