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Gememeshaft

18 comments on Gememeshaft

Gememeshaft

: Susan Crawford is at some egghead event about complexity and she’s blogging it. That’s guts.

In today’s report, there’s a fascinating bit from Mary Ann Allison of the Allison group saying that societies were once described by gemeinschaft (think community) and the, after the industrial revolution, as gesellschaft (think society). We’re at a next stage:

Allison doesn’t see these as oppositional systems, but rather as stages in evolution — and she thinks we’re at a big punctuation point prompted by the information revolution. The new society is gecyberschaft.

So if your unit of community in gemeinschaft was the village, it became “friends and family” in gesellschaft, and it’s now your “primary attention group.” You pay attention to that group (or groups, I’d hope she’d say) and to “groups of purpose” — groups neither bound to a place nor to a particular bureaucracy.

In gemeinschaft, your status was ascribed (based on birth); in gesellschaft, it was achieved; and now, in gecyberschaft, it’s assessed.

Is this on the final?

But seriously… It is a compelling concept: Has society fundamentally changed again? Are the old strings that tied us together replaced with (and tangled in) new strings that not only cut across geography, boundaries, and societies but also are created and valued in entirely new means and measurements? We are assessed not by our bloodline and not by our location or income or education but instead by our connections. Hmmmm.

: LATER: Matt Bruce calls gecybershaft “extreme language torture.” Yes, I thought gememeshaft was a bit more elegant.

: Kenneth suggests gebyteshaft.

: Martin in the comments slaps us all (as my German teacher used to) for torturing not just English but German and explains it well.

I just tried to use Google to translate various English words to German to find a more legitimate construction. I loved what happened. I put in these distinct words, looking for a translation for each: “link connection network net string wire.” Google, acting quite German, came back and gave me this: Verbindungsanschlu

18 responses to “Gememeshaft”

  1. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    This thesis was the kernel of Mary Ann’s dissertation for the PhD she recently completed in Media Ecology at NYU (my program as well). She has an excellent presentation on the topic – anyone interested should contact her to arrange further discussion.

  2. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    I think it’s early days yet for the cyber bit to start replacing the roles of the other villagers- the bartender, the gardener, the guy who washed your windows… not to mention the cop, the fireman and the soldier.
    That being said, since I’ve become a blogger my outlook has been totally globalized. Right now I’m swapping ideas and talking buisness with people in Asia. Before the internet I would’ve just limited my economic activity around the large urban centre where I lived- London, New York etc.
    It’s been an intereesitn transformation….

  3. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    Based on my understanding of Mary Ann’s theory, it’s not that gecyberschaft is replacing the other two theories of society; rather, it simply represents a third variant. All three can co-exist, both at the social and individual level.

  4. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Michael: Good point. I meant that each came in its time. Now is the time for the gecybershaft (though I kinda like the sound of gememeshaft better).

  5. John Avatar
    John

    Definitely like the concept; definitely hate the terminology so far. There must be a better German word than the Greek loan word (via English). And is that a hard or soft “c”? Either way, it sounds like a Rottweiler barfing!
    Michael Zimmer’s point is appropriate. But I differ with Jeff’s assessment about a “time” for each. Gemeinschaft co-exists with Gesellschaft now. Sometimes there’s friction; most often, there’s not.
    The UK is a good sample where even big cities strive to maintain “villages” instead of a unitary megapolis, with areas in London, for example, like Chelsea or Islington fighting to maintain separate identities.
    I think it an error to use the two terms simply to distinguish levels of development or economy.
    Besides, even if I’m living in a Gesellschaft, I can take part in gemeinschaft as well as that third, ungainly named thing simultaneously or consequetively.

  6. abcxyz Avatar
    abcxyz

    I thought that this was one of the commonplaces of the analysis of “globalization”: that the more “connected” (and generally more powerful, wealthy, educated, etc.) portions of national societies were identifying more with their international peers than with their countrymen or nation. Of course, 9/11, the War on Terror and Iraq War have interrupted this process, particularly for many Americans. In fact, the extent to which these events have (or should) interrupt that aspect of the globalization process was one of the underlying tensions of the 2004 US election and drivers of the red/blue divide.

  7. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Please. There is no essential change.

  8. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    This is certainly extreme language torture.
    You can’t just create German words in the form Ge-x-shaft. It has been used here for aestetic effect rather than to convey any meaning. Tonnies’ juxtaposition only worked because there happened to be two perfect words begining with ge-.
    The reason the German sociology jargon is so rich is that the obvious etymology of German words conveys the historical processes that Tonnies was hinting at.
    Gemein means “common” and is the root of Gemeinde (which can mean “municipality”, “parish”, “congregation” or “audience”, depending on context). Hence Gemeinshaft. Geselle (journeyman), gesellen (to join), gesellig (sociable). Hence Gesellshaft (society).
    By contrast “Gecyber” means, well, nothing. So all this good stuff gets lost. Neither, I’m afraid, does “Gememe”. A more effective German term for this nice idea is unlikely to provide a nice alliteration with Tonnies’s.

  9. Jim in Texas Avatar
    Jim in Texas

    “By contrast “Gecyber” means, well, nothing”
    Yeah, but it sounds so….German!
    It’s like the G.I. German spoken by the Occupation forces after WWII “Donkey Shane, very much”

  10. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    John: Re timing… What I”m trying to say is that just as gesellshaft emerged (with the industrial revolution) gememeshaft is emerging now. doesn’t mean it replaces the other two, but this is its time.

  11. German Avatar
    German

    Oh boy. As a German citizen, I am cringing when I hear such mutilation of our language. I cannot believe this sort of nonsensical abuse of the German language was the actual kernel of a PhD dissertation. If it really was, she should not have passed. But maybe this was taken out of context, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt – all the while trying to hide the agony induced by this “neologism”…

  12. Tim Bucktoo Avatar
    Tim Bucktoo

    How about Gegoogleshaft?

  13. notabbott Avatar
    notabbott

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this exactly the society portrayed in The Diamond Age from Neal Stephenson? New social order driven by common values and not be geography?

  14. Mary Ann Allison Avatar
    Mary Ann Allison

    Thanks, Michael, I’m delighted you found the ideas interesting!
    And, yes, social evolution is not uniform and it incorporates and remediates earlier forms at multiple levels.
    As for the word gecyberschaft… well, it engages people (including on this blog and at the conference) and often makes them smile–two good things from my POV. I checked with a couple of German sociologists (not a statistically valid sample, of course) who found it interesting and amusing before I started using it.
    Susan did a nice job with sound bites…and the full construct, as one might expect, is more robust. I welcome further discussion.

  15. AST Avatar
    AST

    Jeff,
    try http://dict.leo.org/ for translations from German to English. It gives a variety of examples of usage.
    “Gesellschaft” tends to refer to groups in which one acquires membership either officially or by reason of some status. Its root deals with selection.
    “Gemeinshaft,” as you note, is rooted in the concept of commonality or community.
    LEO doesn’t recognize “cyber”. It translates cybercrime as “Internetkriminalit

  16. Michael Zimmer Avatar
    Michael Zimmer

    I think the suggestion that this is evolution is silly. There have always been communities, societies and cliques. People have always sorted themselves into groups and classes.
    The theory (in my understanding) is more than this. It argues for an emergent method of how these communities are organized. In gemeinschaft, your status was ascribed (based on birth), and you became a member of a community through that birth-right; in gesellschaft, your status was achieved, and you earned your way into a community; and now, in gecyberschaft, you are assessed by peers, and then brought into a community. Think about how karma works in Slashdot, or PageRank for Google results, or how links affect a blog’s rank on Technorati. Its more about what others think of you, and less about your actual properties or actions.

  17. Mike/SFO Avatar
    Mike/SFO

    It’s all pretty “turgid”, insofar as effectively relating the German word concepts of social affiliation to anything “cyber”.
    Just for fun, the difficulties and pleasures of venturing into this realm are highlighted in the wonderful essay by “Mark Twain” in his late 19th century treatise “The Awful German Language.” (http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html.)
    So, in the final analysis, I would say to all punters attempting to get anywhere close on this point: “Alles klar, keiner weiss bescheid!” (OK, nobody knows for sure!)

  18. TW. Andrews Avatar
    TW. Andrews

    I’d suggest getting rid of the “Ge” prefix all together. It doesn’t mean anything in the context of a random word with “-schaft” stuck on the end.
    My suggestion is Einschaltschaft which means something like “connectedhood.” I’ve elaborated more here: http://cognativedissident.blogspot.com/ if anyone’s interested…