gesellschaft
- noun
- /ɡəˈzɛlʃɑft/
- Specialized
:
sociedad
- Unlike in Gesellschaft, where bonds are weak, a Gemeinschaft focuses on individualism and impersonal interactions.
Examples
-
There is a huge and unmasterable literature by now on what Hegel and company called die bürgerliche Gesellschaft—and some pointers to at least the highlights of this literature really ought to make it into the published Project Syndicate version, but there is as of yet no easy way to include them.
Blog text (7) -
Gemeinschaft versus Gesellschaft, cohesion versus atomization, the local versus the modern: the nineteenth-century sense of community.
Academic text (2000) -
There is little Gesellschaft and even less Gemeinschaft in the international system.
Academic text (1990) -
A workplace in Japan is still more of a Gemeinschaft rather than a Gesellschaft.
Academic text (1990) -
The ubiquity of communalization processes is more effectively captured in Weber's refashioning of the contrast between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
Academic text (1990) -
In a Gesellschaft, relationships are often based on formal agreements and roles rather than personal connections.
-
Contemporary urban life is often characterized by Gesellschaft, where people engage in indirect and formal relationships.
Synonyms
∞
1.7
A connection between people, groups, or countries that shows how they interact
131
3.0
A connection between people, groups, or things, often from working together
2
3.9
A connection between people or animals that shows how they interact
How Personal
Surface Forms
Etymology
Gesellschaft comes from Gesell 'companion' and -schaft like English -ship, but in sociology it was used to describe modern life where relations are formal and goal-focused rather than close and personal. So the old idea of 'companions' helps explain why gesellschaft now means impersonal, often work-based social ties.