Sunshine Skyways

Ferdinand Tönnies (1855 - 1936) was a German sociologist who explored differences among community (Gemeinschaft) and society (Gesellschaft). The following quotes are from Tönnies's Community and Society: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft and were found online at www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/GEMEIN.HTML.

Family life is the general basis of life in the Gemeinschaft. It subsists in village and town life. The village community and the town themselves can be considered as large families, the various clans and houses representing the elementary organisms of its body; guilds, corporations, and offices, the tissues and organs of the town. Here original kinship and inherited status remain an essential, or at least the most important, condition of participating fully in common property and other rights. Strangers may be accepted and protected as serving-members or guests either temporarily or permanently. Thus, they can belong to the Gemeinschaft as objects, but not easily as agents and representatives of the Gemeinschaft.