![]() For both Durkheim and Merton, frustrated aspirations were an important cause of norm violations, or deviance. According to Merton, when there existed within a society a disjuncture between the legitimate goals that members of a society were aspiring to and the legitimate means of achieving these goals, then that society was in a state of anomie. Merton (1949) used the concept anomie to describe how social structure produced individual deviance. "Anomia" is a social psychological derivative used to represent a state of disaffection or disconnectedness. His application (1949) has been the core theoretical statement in one of the twentieth century's major criminological traditions. Robert Merton's use of "anomie" is very similar to that described by Durkheim. In addition to extensions similar to past uses of this concept, social psychological conceptions of anomie have become widespread. ![]() CONTEMPORARY USES OF "ANOMIE"Īnomie continues to be used as defined by Durkheim, but it has also been extended during the twentieth century. In his classic Suicide, Durkheim ( 1951) identifies "anomic suicide" as occurring when the values and norms of the group cease to have meaning or serve as anchors for the individual, leading to feelings of isolation, confusion, and personal disorganization. Many of the social problems that Durkheim witnessed in rapidly changing industrializing Europe, he blamed on inadequate normative regulation. In this state, without adequate normative direction, people did not know what to expect or how to behave. Release from the restraining influence of norms was not a liberating circumstance, according to Durkheim. Compared with communities characterized by mechanical solidarity, developing larger towns and cities would have a less regulated, less structured, less ordered pattern of social life. By this he did not mean to imply literal normlessness but, rather, a state of relative normative disorder (Coser 1977). The transitional period, characterized by normative disorganization, Durkheim described as anomic. The emergence of organic solidarity would take time, however. Durkheim believed that a new, "organic solidarity" based on a division of labor would emerge, with a regulating normative structure that would be as functional as mechanical solidarity. With the emergence of industrial capitalism and the beginnings of population shifts from the hinterland to cities, mechanical solidarity could not successfully structure social life. Communities characterized by "mechanical solidarity" were self-contained units in which the family and the village provided for all of the needs of their members. Durkheim called this pattern of social life mechanical solidarity. Norms prescribed patterns of behavior, obligation, and expectations. DURKHEIM ON ANOMIEĪccording to Durkheim, village life based on agriculture had consistent, well-established norms that governed the day-to-day lives of individuals. There are, no doubt, sociologists who cringe at any expanded usage of this and other concepts, but the fact of the matter is that we have no more control over its usage than Thomas Kuhn (1970) has over abominable uses of the concept "paradigm," or than computer engineers have over those who say "interface" when they mean "meet with." Although we cannot completely stop the misappropriation of such terms as anomie we can be careful that sociological extensions of anomie are logically derived from their early uses. This is not to say that it no longer has uses consistent with the initial definition, but its meaning has been broadened considerably, at times consistent with Durkheim's usage, at times at substantial variance with it. Increasingly, this term has taken on a more social psychological meaning. Anomie is used to describe a state of society, referring to characteristics of the social system, not of individuals, although individuals were affected by this force. For sociologists, anomie is most frequently associated with Emile Durkheim, although others used it differently even during his lifetime (Wolff 1988).ĭurkheim ( 1956) used the French word anomie, meaning "without norms," to describe the disruption that societies experienced in the shift from agrarian, village economies to those based on industry. ![]() ![]() The demise of traditional communities and the disruption of norms, values, and a familiar way of life were major concerns of nineteenth-century philosophers and sociologists. The concept anomie was used by early sociologists to describe changes in society produced by the Industrial Revolution.
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