Solidarity

Structural Solidarity

Solidarity, understood and defined as structural, alludes to the social role that it plays in a collective entity, whatever this collectivity is (group, community or society, public or private, etc.). This role suggests that a collectivity cannot progress and develop if its members are not working together to achieve the common goal(s) with which it identifies or if they do not feel and act on a sense of solidarity toward one another and the [Page 2465]collectivity. This structural aspect of solidarity is why solidarity tends to be seen as the expression, instrument, and result of a commitment to the group, its members, and their well-being. Even the emergence and sustainability of cooperation, so essential socially because it epitomizes mutually beneficial interactions and the collective good, would be quite impossible if people did not think that they can count on the help of others—on their sense of solidarity—when needed.

Because solidarity as a structural phenomenon is about the possibility of collective life, it implies that each individual existence is social; that is, it relies in crucial ways on the sense of solidarity with others. This comes down to the fact that people cannot be and do much on their own. To a large extent, all people—no matter how capable—depend on the care of others to grow and flourish. Hence, at most junctures of their life, mundane or fundamental, individuals are the recipients of multiple actions of solidarity. The final stage, when the end has come, is no exception. It is a deep sense of human and spiritual solidarity that allows us to be buried with dignity and remembered after we are gone.

...