Social Fragmentation

Definition: As used herein, Social Fragmentation is the process by which Social Cohesion declines and is eventually lost. A Socially Fragmented Place - a state of being - is a Place that has lost Social Cohesion. People in that Place feel lonely.

Related terms: Social Cohesion | Place

As used herein, Social Fragmentation is the process by which Social Cohesion declines and eventually lost. A Socially Fragmented Place - a state of being - is a Place that has lost Social Cohesion. People in that Place feel lonely.

Social Fragmentation is about an absence; about something that is not there. It is about a vacuum of Social Cohesion typically nowadays filled by the Communication of the Ideomatic.

As commonly used herein, Social Fragmentation refers to Neighbors in a given Neighborhood living more or less like strangers to one another. As a consequence of the absence of Adequate Social Cohesion, many Neighbors feel lonely. Neighborhood Communication (including the choice of clothing, hairdos, automobiles, the interior and exterior appearances of Households, where the children go to school, and so on) may be highly fashionable, but the totality of Neighborhood behavior and relationships is fragmented like glass that is broken. Each Household or even each individual within some Households is an isolated fragment. The physical and emotional connection between fragments is minor. Trust is superficial at best or low or non-existent at worse. To ask a Neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar would be deemed "abnormal" in the Social Order of the Neighborhood. People shy away from asking for help generally. They turn to apps and more Communication instead. Given loneliness and little trust, Aspects of one's Fundamental Human Needs cannot be met.  Bad Things start to happen as part of the Social Fragmentation process. "Bad Things" is used as a placeholder for a wide range of feelings, behaviors, and relationships that most people deem undesirable; for example, feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression; behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse; relationships such as prostitution and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. When certain kinds of behaviors and relationship reach a Critical Mass within a population - and are also deemed undesirable by a Critical Mass of concerned citizens - they become a Contested Matter; for example, tobacco use and the adverse health consequences associated with it is nowadays deemed a Contested Matter while 100 years ago it was not.

Commentary

Social Fragmentation is an odd process in human behavior and relationships in the sense that it occurs only in the absence of other processes, namely, those of Social Cohesion. If one does not Understand Social Cohesion, one can only search in the dark for explanations of Social Fragmentation.

Evidence of Social Fragmentation, i.e., its effects, can be abundantly clear to the Observer (family breakdown, drugs, crime, etc.), yet the causes or explanations for these Undesirable Events are hard for the Observer to Understand because he or she does not Understand Social Cohesion in the first place.  Other people can then devise explanations that suit their own purposes and Communicate them to the Observer. These explanations become especially attractive to the Observer when they are wrapped in a comprehensive Ideology.  Consumerism, for example, is an Ideology that says one can Solve Problems through the consumption of goods and services. That makes sense to the Observer who has money.  It certainly makes sense to the sellers of goods and services.

Setting aside all Ideologies, Social Fragmentation can be better Understood by analogy with the disease, scurvy.

When people do not have access to adequate Vitamine 'C' in their diets from fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, their bodies are unable to manufacture collagen. Collagen is the primary connective tissue of the body. Without collagen, after about a month, a Person's Body literally and slowly falls apart. The process is easily reversed. With adequate Vitamin 'C' in the diet, symptoms begin to reverse within days and one is fully recovered in a few weeks.

Now here is the big sticking point for Modern people generally -

To Understand scurvy, you have to Understand that our Bodies have an Intrinsic Nature. For example, they absolutely positively require Adequate Vitamin 'C.'  Your "right to choose" not to consume Adequate Vitamin 'C' will not work. Why?  Because our Bodies are this. They are not that.  The same is true with Social Fragmentation.  The Intrinsic Nature of our Bodies demands Social Cohesion. If you think you have a "right to choose" not to obey the demands of Social Cohesion, you are in for a hard life and you will create a hard life for everyone around you. Why? Because humans have an Intrinsic Nature.

See Social Cohesion and Social Capital for descriptions that contrast with Social Fragmentation. See The Contest Proposition