Introduction Social Solidarity refers to the links in societies various social groups that bind people together. These links can be based on many things i.e familial ties, but more often than not it is shared norms and values which unify these social groups. Social solidarity was developed by Emile Durkheim in his book Division of Labour in Society in 1893. Durkheim was interested in discovering what held society together and to do this he characterised two types of social solidarity; mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity (http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/social-solidarity). Mechanical solidarity is often present in more traditionalist, small-scale societies and is based on shared beliefs and values, whereas organic solidarity occurs in more advanced societies where individuals may have differing beliefs but are reliant on each other to perform specific tasks which will, in turn, benefit the society as an entirety. In this essay, I will outline how values and norms contribute to the concept of social solidarity. How do values contribute to social solidarity? The concept of values plays an important role in the make-up of societies, they are standards which indicate what is right and wrong. Young and Mack described values as "an assumption, largely unconscious, of what is right and important"(Young&Mack, 1959). Values have an impact on people’s actions and serve as a measure for evaluating the behaviour of others. An individual can have his own