Solidarity is one of the central concepts in social theory and has gained much attention due to the multiple challenges that the EU has been facing the last decade and due to the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. Although the debate on the nature and conditions of solidarity has been revitalized, there remains a large variety in how to conceptualize solidarity. In contrast to other approaches, we do not conceive solidarity as normative concept, but as descriptive–analytical one. Therefore, we provide a theory-based definition that is prone to capture the empirical dimensions of solidarity. Accounting for the dynamic and interactive character of solidarity as subject to permanent societal and political renegotiation, we conceptualize solidarity from a discourse perspective and follow a multilevel design breaking down the understandings of solidarity on different levels. This approach contributes to the research of solidarity that is interested to capturing the ‘real world’ dimensions of solidarity.

团结是社会理论的核心概念之一，由于欧盟在过去十年中面临的多重挑战以及最近的 COVID-19 大流行，它受到了广泛关注。尽管关于团结的性质和条件的辩论已经重新活跃起来，但在如何将团结概念化方面仍然存在很大差异。与其他方法相比，我们并不将团结视为规范性概念，而是将其视为描述性-分析性概念。因此，我们提供了一个基于理论的定义，它倾向于捕捉团结的经验维度。考虑到团结的动态和互动特性，因为它受永久的社会和政治重新谈判的影响，我们从话语的角度对团结进行概念化，并遵循多层次的设计，在不同层次上打破对团结的理解。这种方法有助于对团结的“现实世界”维度感兴趣的团结研究。