Thursday, February 5, 2009
MS and OS within East Bay Consortium
I will show how both Mechanic Solidarity and Organic Solidarity exists within East Bay Consortium, with Organic Solidarity as the dominant form. There is a division of labor within the hierarchy of the organization to make the common goal possible, which increases the solidarity among the staff.
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Mechanical solidarity is based on similarities, with the absence of division of labor. There are little individuality in this society because everyone seems to act and look the same way, since we share common goals. Mechanical solidarity uses repressive laws in the form of punishment. [31] The function of punishment isn’t to avenge against the criminal, but for a society to defend itself and to pause conflicts. [44] Punishments are only used for criminals who violated the collective conscious. [39] Through these punishments, we, as members of society, are reminded about the common law instilled in our collective consciousness, since punishment acts on all honest people instead of just the person who committed the crime. [63] Under mechanical solidarity, there is a direct link to society because everyone is similar, which makes the collective consciousness of the society is stronger than individual conscious.
Organic solidarity, on the other hand, is based on complementary differences. [68] The specialization from the division of labor leads to interdependence among people, which provides indirect links to the society. Restitutive law is used here, which acts to restore relations among previously division of labor, whether it is through labor laws or family laws. Labor laws could involve the worker and the capitalist, whereas family law involves the function of the relationship between family members, such as the husband and the wife.
My chosen institution, which is East Bay Consortium, does have mechanical and organic solidarity instilled within its functions as a non-profit organization designed to promote higher education among underserved communities. In regards to mechanical solidarity, everyone serves the similar motive of accomplishing the goals of the institution, but in different ways, depending on what their job position is, which represents the division of labor with specialization under organic solidarity. Although the institution exhibit characteristics of both solidarities, characteristics of organic solidarity are more visible.
Within the organization, there is a clear division of labor in the hierarchy of the staff members, with everyone specializing in different things. The staffs higher in the hierarchy have more ownership of the institution because they are the people who run the organization as executive and associate directors. They are also college graduates who have higher salaries and have a family. Additionally, they direct the staff below them to do certain tasks, which includes me because I work for them. My coworkers and I, who perform the tasks and objectives of the organization in the community, are all college students with lower paid salaries.
Although we have assigned tasks of either outreaching to classes and community events, providing academic advising in high schools, tutoring, or mentoring, we are not always supervised by the directors. This allows everyone to have some freedom in developing their talent in fulfilling their task because everyone has been trained. Individual consciousness becomes more important than the collective conscious because we tend to work more independently than with every staff from EBC together. Through everyone’s specialization in their tasks, the common objectives of everyone, which is to promote higher education, are constantly being met within the interdependent relationships based on their complementary differences. If problems arise between the staff member, the directors would often try to restore the relationships through compromise or dialogue, which represents the restitutive laws under organic solidarity, instead of punishment under mechanic solidarity.
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