Mechanical Vs. Organic Solidarity And Durkheim

Durkheim however, looks at the larger effect on society, not just how the economy and society intertwine as Marx did. He therefore concludes that whilst a division of labour is necessary for the production of materials, which in turn create a domino effect to improve aspects of life. This concept is something that Marx had also suggested with Holt (2014: 69) believing that “when people sell their labour, the result is an increase in the wealth of society in general” (because the more money one gets, the more time there is to enjoy other aspects of life) it can also lead to the breakdown of societal values. Moreover, Durkheim believed that industrialisation would bring about the contest between Mechanical vs. organic solidarity. Mechanical Solidarity entailed a premise of social cohesion based upon a collective conscience (Ritzer: 8) -similarity and camaraderie between individuals (Morrison: 2006: 161)- within society doing the same job, and this was largely dependent on common routines such as religion or performing the same tasks.
However, with industrialisation, both he and Marx believed that as society transitions from agriculture to one based on profit and competition, this will lessen to create Organic Solidarity where there is still Social cohesion but it is based upon interdependency and the division of labour, coordinating the economy, politics and religion in a collective manner (Morrison: 165). For Durkheim, who focused more on solidarity in comparison to Marx, he