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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the classical tradition in sociology of religion and newer approaches of functional sacred, I discuss the construction of solidarities in digital contexts in recent Romania, theoretically addressing the (quasi-)religious expressions of collective commitment .

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on the classical tradition in sociology of religion, theories of anomie and recent approaches of functional sacred (Demerath 2010), I discuss the construction of collective commitment in digital contexts in recent Romania, emphasizing the theoretical potential of questioning the (quasi-)religious expressions of solidarities against certain social evils.

The situation that steadily grew to become the most significant civic attitude in recent Romania was caused by a “moral shock” (Jasper 1997): the fire that killed 64 people in a nightclub in Bucharest in 2015 led to an unprecedented strong public response to a flawed management of death. The pandemic and the war deepened the crisis expanding the need to cluster around absolute moral values.

In anomic times (gaps between social goals and social means, uncertainty, lack of trust, dissatisfaction with the mechanisms of democracy), extraordinarily pure moral values give rise to spirituality-infused civic solidarities. Rising “like one man” (Arendt 1965) against corrupted evil-doers prompts the feeling of being anchored in one mystical Common Will. Functionally, there is no difference between exercising a civil right and exorcising an evil.

How "authentic" are such solidarities? In a Durkheimian tradition, "authentic” communities are maintained through genuine sacred emotions rooted in reality. For Durkheim (1912), sacred is very real (not synthetically induced), that is 1. not the consequence of one’s passion and 2. not something invented by emotionally skilled individuals. Instead, the sacred reflects one’s capacity to feel faith together with others (with whom one is in immediate relation) and the capacity to act in accordance with that faith. As Durkheim further suggested, only tight collective entities can sustain the sacred and form “real” communities. Finally, we may wonder whether virtual networks - rooted in vicarious experiences, not on actual emotional bonds and moral engagement among members - can actually forge "authentic" collective life.