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Amity School of Law,Noida

SOC-125, Semester-1

Sociology: An Introduction

Dr. Manisha Jha

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Association

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 Association Name of Institution

• Association is a group organized for the

pursuits of an interest or group of interests
in common.

• Association refers to any group sharing

common purpose or interest.

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 Association Name of Institution

• Association is a group of people, formed to

a particular goal. Such a group is not of a
permanent type. Its membership is
voluntary and it can be dissolved after the
attainment of the goal.
• An association is sort of a cooperative unit
having its own organisation, rules and
regulations.
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 Definitions Name of Institution

• MacIver – An association is an
organisation deliberately formed for the
collective pursuit of same interest or set of
interests, which its members share.

• Bogardus – An association is usually

working together of people who wish to
achieve certain purposes.

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 Definitions Name of Institution

• An association is a group of social beings

related to one another by the fact that they
possess or have instituted in common, an
organisation with a view to achieving
specific ends ” Ginsberg

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• Ferdinand Tonnies, a German sociologist

and a founder of the German Sociological
Association, is best known for his
distinction between ‘community’ and
‘association’, which he elaborated in
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (1887),
translated as Community and Association.

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• Tonnies identified three separate branches

of sociology:

• 1. Pure or theoretical
• 2. Applied
• 3. Empirical

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Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

• The distinction between ‘community’
(Gemeinschaft) and ‘association’
(Gesellschaft) constituted the core of his
theoretical sociology.
• These ‘fundamental concepts’ were to
guide empirical and applied sociology in
the study of the transformation of society
from communal to associational
relationships.
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• Although they are ideal types, Tonnies

wanted to use his pair of concepts to
describe the historical transformation of
society of Germany from a rural to an
industrial society.

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 Gemeinschaft Name of Institution

• Societies characterized by Gemeinschaft

(community) relations are homogeneous, largely
based on kinship and organic ties, and have a moral
cohesion often founded on common religious
sentiment.
• These relationships are dissolved by the division of
labour, individualism and competitiveness; that is, by
the growth of Gesellschaft (association) relationships.
• Whereas Tonnies regarded Gemeinschaft as the
expression of real, organized life, Gesellschaft is an
artificial social arrangement based on the conflict of
egoistic wills.
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 Gemeinschaft Name of Institution

• Gemeinschaft refers to relationships which are

spontaneous and ‘affective’, tend to be related to a
person’s overall social status, are repeated or long-
enduring (as in relationships with kin), and occur in
a context involving cultural homogeneity.
• Characteristically, these are the relationships within
families and within simpler, small-scale and pre-
modern societies.
• Gesellschaft refers to relationships which are
individualistic, impersonal, competitive, calculative
and contractual, often employing explicit
conceptions of rationality and efficiency.
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• Relationships of this are characteristic of

modern urban industrial societies in which
the division of labour is advanced.
• For Tonnies, such relationships involved a
loss of the naturalness and mutuality of
earlier Gemeinschaft relationships.

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• Tonnies argues that social relations are

the products of human will;
• he identified two types of will:
• (a) natural will (Wesenwille), and
• (b) rational will (Kurwille).

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Natural will and Rational will

• Natural will is the expression of instinctual
needs, habit, conviction or inclination.
• Rational will involves instrumental rationality in
the selection of means for ends. Whereas
natural will is organic and real, rational will is
conceptual and artificial.
• These forms of will correspond to the distinction
between community and association, since
communal life is the expression of natural will
and associational life is a consequence of
rational will. 15
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Features of Association
• 1. Group of People: An association is a
group of people who form it for the
attainment of common goals.
• 2. Voluntary Membership: Only those
people who endorse the common goals of
the association become its members.
Membership is voluntary and cannot be
imposed on people who do not wish to do
so.
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• 3. Common Goals: Members form an

association for the attainment of common
objectives. Those who do not endorse
these objectives do not become members
of the association

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Distinction Between Association

and Community
• 1. Membership of associiation is voluntary,
whereas membership of community is
compulsory.
• 2. An association is man-made and
community is natural.
• 3. An association is partial, community is
whole.
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• 4. An association exists within a

community.
• 5. An association is temporary, a
community is permanent.
• 6. Association cannot exist with formal
rules and regulations whereas, community
exists on social conducts.
• 7. In association social control is exercised
by formal means whereas, in community
social control is exercised by informal
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• 8. In association, president, secretaries

are the office bearers. There are no such
formal positions in community.
• 9. Pre-condition of the existence of
community is the we-feeling among the
members. In Association there might be
no we – feeling among they members.

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 Kinds of Associations Name of Institution

1. Political Associations – BJP, Congress Party

2. Religious Associations – Arya Samaj
3. Students Association- ABVP, NSUI
4. Labourers Association – All India Trade Union
Congress
5. Professional Associations – Indian Medical
Association
6. Economic Associations – Hotel Owners’
Association
7. International Associations – YMCA, The Rotary
Club
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• Therefore, we can say that associations

are simply formed for the fulfillment of
certain goals and are temporary in nature.

• Community however, is of permanent type

and takes care of different facets of human
life.

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Thank you

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