Examples of Social Cohesion

The social cohesion or social integration is a sociological concept that refers to the degree of consensus that exists among the members of a social group, that is, to how consensual, accepted and perceived as fair are the actions that the group undertakes, in the face of those who do it integrate.

A human group with greater social cohesion will act more easily as a united block, in a more solid and homogeneous way, while that a group endowed with little social cohesion will act in a dispersed, contradictory and disorderly way, or even will not act in absolute. Social cohesion can be measured through different indices and statistical tests, always adapted to the nature of the social group in question.

Factors like communication, commitment, institutional transparency and common interest are among the main facilitators of social cohesion, since they foster understanding and the establishment and I respect of common standards. No human collective can operate in an organized manner without universal rules. On the other hand, factors such as anomie (lack of norms), mutual mistrust, corruption, isolation and ideological polarization weaken the social cohesion of any human group.

The subject of social cohesion is studied from different points of view, such as the functionalist perspective (also known as "Theory of systems”), conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and many other sociological and psychological approaches to the way systems operate. human collectives.

One of the great scholars of it was the French sociologist and philosopher Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), who understood it as the feeling of interdependence between people, that is, of needing each other to succeed or survive. That sentiment is precisely what holds together individualistic and specialized societies such as contemporary ones.

Examples of social cohesion

Some examples of the functioning of social cohesion in human groups are:

1. In Chile in 1988, during the military dictatorship, a referendum was held to consult the people regarding the continuity of General Augusto Pinochet's mandate. Despite having suffered from a bloody autocracy since 1973, the Chilean people managed to gather their forces and unify the strategy to vote massively for the “No” option, which was the winner with 55.99% of the votes totals. Such a show of cohesion in a people suffered and subjected was rewarded with the calling of elections for president and parliaments in 1989.
2. The end of South African apartheid that brutally segregated the white population from the native African population came to an end at the beginning of the decade of 1990, after decades of struggle and internal oppression, thanks to international pressure and the enormous social cohesion demonstrated by the South African people, who expressed around the leadership of Nelson Mandela the desire to refound the country and society in a fairer way. This involved not only opening up white politicians to anti-apartheid parties like Mandela's ANC, but also willingness of black citizens to vote en masse in the first elections in which the vote of all voters was worth the same. For that, the oppressed had to trust the electoral system and the institutions, and it was thus that in 1994 Nelson Mandela he was elected as president of the country, starting a government of reconciliation and refoundation, instead of a revenge.
3. The lack of social cohesion in Rwanda during 1994, or rather the ethnic, political, historical and communication difficulties to uniting the two main ethnic groups of that African nation, the Hutus and the Tutsis, led to what is now known as the Genocide of Rwanda. During this confrontation, the Hotus tried to exterminate the Tutsis between April and July of that year. In this case, division and hatred were stronger than faith in institutions and the idea that, in a prosperous country, all citizens are important.
4. The social cohesion of a family accustomed to getting together at parties, eating together and establishing dynamics of dialogue between peers and with children will be much higher and will allow them to respond to a family crisis (for example, an economic crisis) in a much more organized, effective and peaceful than another family with less cohesion, in which its members fight, are absent or delegate responsibilities to each other others.

References:

• "Social cohesion" in Wikipedia.
• "Social cohesion" in Democratic Lighthouse (Mexico).
• “What is social cohesion?” (video) in the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP).

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