Solidarity in the Communitarium

The Communitarium Project builds on Richard Rorty’s idea of solidarity but seeks to extend it into a more durable and structured form. While Rorty’s solidarity emerges from shared vocabularies and empathetic imagination, it remains fragile because of its contingency—dependent on the shifting sands of language and culture. In the Communitarium, solidarity is embedded in the community’s practices, making it flexible enough to adapt as language evolves while remaining strong enough to bind the community together.

Rorty’s solidarity is contingent on shared vocabularies, which provide a temporary common ground for empathy and cooperation. However, as those vocabularies shift, the solidarity based on them may unravel. The Communitarium seeks to resolve this issue by developing adaptive solidarity—a form of collective cohesion that is reinforced through embedded practices, rituals, and shared work, rather than being solely dependent on the specific vocabularies in use at any given time.

• Example: In a Communitarium, solidarity might be expressed through regular gatherings or projects where community members collaborate, not just to discuss shared values but to actively perform solidarity through ongoing, cooperative engagement. These practices make solidarity less about agreeing on a shared vocabulary and more about reinforcing the bonds that hold the community together in practical, everyday ways.

One of the key innovations of the Communitarium is the use of rituals to anchor solidarity in the community. These rituals provide regular opportunities for members to reconnect with one another and reaffirm their collective identity. Unlike Rorty’s more ephemeral solidarity, which relies on shared vocabularies that may change over time, the Communitarium’s rituals create a structured space where solidarity can be renewed and sustained, even as vocabularies evolve.

• Example: A ritual could be as simple as a weekly communal meal, where members engage in dialogue and reflection on the community’s goals and values. These rituals help to ground solidarity in shared actions and practices, ensuring that it remains durable even when linguistic or cultural changes occur.

In the Communitarium, solidarity is not viewed as a static goal to be achieved, but as an ongoing process. This process involves continuously negotiating and renegotiating the community’s values, beliefs, and practices in light of changing circumstances. While Rorty’s solidarity is contingent on the continued relevance of shared vocabularies, the Communitarium embeds this negotiation into the fabric of community life, making it a natural part of maintaining collective cohesion.

• Adaptive Solidarity: Solidarity in the Communitarium is designed to be adaptive—able to withstand changes in the community’s linguistic and cultural context. By institutionalizing the process of renegotiation, the Communitarium ensures that solidarity remains flexible and responsive, rather than fragile or rigid.

Rorty’s conception of solidarity is built on empathetic imagination—the ability to imagine oneself in the position of another. While this is an important starting point for the Communitarium, it is only one part of the larger process. The Communitarium seeks to transform solidarity from a primarily empathic experience into something more embedded in the everyday practices of the community. This embeddedness allows for a deeper, more resilient form of solidarity, one that is continuously reinforced through shared actions and decisions.

• Example: In a Communitarium, solidarity might be reinforced through collective decision-making processes, where each member’s voice is actively heard and integrated into the community’s evolving framework. This approach turns solidarity into a practical, lived experience, rather than something that relies solely on empathy or shared values.

An important aspect of solidarity in the Communitarium is the role of deliberation. Rather than assuming that solidarity arises naturally from shared beliefs or experiences, the Communitarium promotes deliberative practices that help the community continuously reimagine and reaffirm its collective identity. Through open dialogue, disagreements and differences become opportunities for growth, rather than threats to solidarity.

• Example: In times of disagreement, Communitarium members engage in structured deliberation, where the goal is not to reach a final consensus but to explore the different ways the community’s values might be interpreted or reimagined. This deliberative process ensures that solidarity is not static but is constantly evolving in response to the community’s changing needs and perspectives.

The Communitarium’s approach to solidarity becomes especially important in times of crisis, when the vocabularies and narratives that hold a community together are most likely to be challenged. In these moments, the adaptive solidarity cultivated in the Communitarium provides a framework for navigating the crisis without losing the bonds that keep the community intact. Rather than dissolving in the face of adversity, the community’s solidarity is strengthened through collective problem-solving and reimagination.

• Example: If the Communitarium faces a crisis—whether it be external (such as political or economic pressures) or internal (such as a conflict over values)—the community draws on its embedded practices to engage in collective reflection and action. The goal is not just to survive the crisis but to emerge from it with a stronger, more cohesive sense of solidarity.

In the Communitarium Project, solidarity is not just a contingent, fragile phenomenon based on shared vocabularies. It is a structured, embedded process, reinforced through collective practices, rituals, and ongoing deliberation. By moving beyond Rorty’s individualistic and contingent solidarity, the Communitarium creates a framework for adaptive solidarity—one that can withstand the challenges of linguistic and cultural change and help communities thrive in an ever-evolving world.

For more on how solidarity is practiced and maintained in the Communitarium, see:

• Rituals and Practices in the Communitarium
• Contingency in the Communitarium
• Conversation Stoppers and Conversation Deflectors