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Vehbi Bayhan
1. Participation Patterns to The Society
The continuity of the societies which are web of social relations and social organizations
depend on not only meeting on a common ground of the individual, group and community
that consist of the society but also being respectful to each othe in terms of their rights.
Society is analysed in two categories in terms of its structure and function. In this context,
Tönnies categorizes society as “gemeinschaft-community” and “gesellschaft-society”;
Durkheim “mechanical solidarity” and “organic solidarity”; Cooley “primary groups” and
secondary groups”. Within this framework, in community structures which generally de-
scribe rural lifestyles we can see the dominance of ‘us’ feeling, closed economy structure,
primary relations and homogeneous population. Contrary to this, in society structures
which describe the city life, individualism instead of the feeling of ‘us’, differentiation and
division of labour, secondary relations and heterogeneous population can be seen (Bay-
han, 1996:91). During the process of urbanization, community structure leaves its place
to society structure.
Individualism and community structure are like a double-edged sword. Therefore the ap-
propriate composition of these two structures is very important for the balance and health
of the society. In this context problems like alineation can be seen in western societies
due to excessive individualistic structure. In eastern socities though excessive commu-
nity structure hinders the development of non-governmental organizations and extremist
communities paradoxically reproduce alineation (Bayhan, 2015:369).
While the necessity of the western societies is to rebuild the spirit of solidarity which is de-
fined as “ashabiyah” (group solidarity) by Ibnu Khaldun, the necessity of the eastern socie-
ties is to be free from the strict and closed community structure and to build a society struc-
ture which is fromed with individualization (without being individualistic) (Bayhan, 2002:11).
In this context, the ideology of “family centered societies” by Fukuyama in his book “The
Trust” is seen as the cause of an authoritative state and a weak civil society. According
to Fukuyama, traditional family values that create dependant individuals prevent the so-
ciety to develop and hinder the creativity of human beings. The continuity of the absolute
family and complex affinity relations block the economic development. Individuals who
only trust their family or relatives therefore do not trust anyone else can not form vol-
untary civil organizations. Among the societies in which the family intersts are far more
important than the moral values like occupational duties and the responsibility for a col-
lective life, “nepotism” that is to favor relatives become effective in the aforesaid societies
(Vergin,1997:9). Family, affiliations, townsman, tirbe, political party, ideology or religious
community togetherness determine the whole social relations.
These sociological contexts that are social and cultural structure in which the individual
lives in determine the participation of the individual to the society. Every social structure
has its own participation patterns which are introduced to the individuals
