Coupling Social Solidarity and Social Harmony in Hong Kong

The various forms of social solidarity are empirically uncharted, especially in relation to social harmony. With respect to resource exchange theory, inclusive solidarity or intergroup acceptance is more conducive to social harmony than mechanical, organic, distributive, and dialogic forms of solidarity. The theoretical prediction holds in the present study that surveyed 1,093 Hong Kong Chinese. Importantly, one's experience of inclusive solidarity tended to contribute to one's practice of social harmony and experience of societal social harmony. Moreover, results show that experiences of organic, distributive, and dialogic solidarity also appeared to induce the practice of social harmony. In contrast, mechanical solidarity did not seem to be helpful for sustaining social harmony. Different forms of solidarity thereby exhibit differential impacts on social harmony.