In
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, anomie () is a
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any
moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow. Anomie is believed to possibly evolve from conflict of
belief system
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
s and causes breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community (both economic and primary
socialization
In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultur ...
). An example is alienation in a person that can progress into a dysfunctional inability to integrate within normative situations of their social world such as finding a job, achieving success in relationships, etc.
The term, commonly understood to mean ''normlessness'', is believed to have been popularized by French sociologist
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
in his influential book
''Suicide'' (1897). Émile Durkheim suggested that Protestants exhibited a greater degree of anomie than Catholics. However, Durkheim first introduced the concept of anomie in his 1893 work ''
The Division of Labour in Society
''The Division of Labour in Society'' (french: De la division du travail social) is the doctoral dissertation of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, published in 1893. It was influential in advancing sociological theories and thought, with i ...
''. Durkheim never used the term ''normlessness''; rather, he described ''anomie'' as "derangement," and "an insatiable will." Durkheim used the term "the
malady
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
of the infinite" because desire without limit can never be fulfilled; it only becomes more intense.
For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards; or from the lack of a
social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate
aspirations. This is a
nurtured condition:
History
In 1893, Durkheim introduced the concept of ''anomie'' to describe the mismatch of collective
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
labour to evolving societal needs when the guild was
homogeneous in its constituency. He equated homogeneous (redundant) skills to ''
mechanical solidarity In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his ''Division of Labour in Society'' (1893) as part of his theory on the development of societ ...
'' whose inertia hindered adaptation. He contrasted this with the
self-regulating behaviour of a
division of labour based on differences in constituency, equated to ''
organic solidarity In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his '' Division of Labour in Society'' (1893) as part of his theory on the development of socie ...
'', whose lack of inertia made it sensitive to needed changes.
Durkheim observed that the conflict between the evolved organic division of labour and the homogeneous mechanical type was such that one could not exist in the presence of the other.
[ Durkheim, Émile. ]893
__FORCETOC__
Year 893 ( DCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Vladimir, ruler (''khan'') of the Bulgarian Empire, is dethroned by his fat ...
1964. ''The Division of Labor in Society''. Free Press. When solidarity is organic, anomie is impossible, as sensitivity to mutual needs promotes evolution in the division of labour:
Durkheim contrasted the condition of anomie as being the result of a malfunction of organic solidarity after the transition to mechanical solidarity:
Durkheim's use of ''anomie'' was in regards to the phenomenon of
industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
—mass-
regimen
A regimen is a plan, or course of action such as a Diet (nutrition), diet, exercise or medical treatment. A salt#Health effects, low-salt diet is a regimen. A course of penicillin is a regimen, and there are many chemotherapy regimens in the treat ...
tation that could not adapt due to its own inertia. More specifically, its resistance to change causes disruptive cycles of
collective behavior (e.g. economics) due to the necessity of a prolonged buildup of sufficient force or momentum to overcome the inertia.
Later in 1897, in his studies of suicide, Durkheim associated ''anomie'' to the influence of a lack of
norms or norms that were too rigid. However, such normlessness or norm-rigidity was a ''symptom'' of anomie, caused by the lack of differential adaptation that would enable norms to evolve naturally due to
self-regulation, either to develop norms where none existed or to change norms that had become rigid and obsolete. Durkheim found that Protestant communities have noticeably higher suicide rates than Catholic ones, and justified it with invidualism and lack of social cohesion prevalent amongst Protestants, creating poorly integrated society and making Protestants less likely to develop close communal ties that would be crucial in times of hardship. Conversely, he states that the Catholic faith binds individuals stronger together and builds strong social ties, decreasing the risk of suicide and alienation. In this, Durkheim argued that religion is much more important than culture in regards to anomic suicide. This allowed Durkheim to successfully tie social cohesion to suicide rates:
In 1938,
Robert K. Merton
Robert King Merton (born Meyer Robert Schkolnick; July 4, 1910 – February 23, 2003) was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as th ...
linked ''anomie'' with
''deviance'', arguing that the discontinuity between
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
and
structure have the dysfunctional consequence of leading to deviance within society. He described 5 types of deviance in terms of the acceptance or rejection of
social goals and the
institutionalized means of achieving them.
Etymology
The term ''anomie—''"a
reborrowing
Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning. This path is indicated by A → B → A, where A is the originating language, an ...
with French spelling of ''anomy''"—comes from (), namely the
privative alpha An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a (from Latin ', from Ancient Greek ) is the prefix ''a-'' or ''an-'' (before vowels) that is used in Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit and Greek and in words borrowed therefrom to express negation or ...
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
(''a-'', 'without'), and ''nomos'' (). The Greeks distinguished between ''nomos'', and ''arché'' (). For example, a
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
is a single ruler but he may still be subject to, and not exempt from, the prevailing laws, i.e. ''nomos''. In the original
city state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
, the
majority rule
Majority rule is a principle that means the decision-making power belongs to the group that has the most members. In politics, majority rule requires the deciding vote to have majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary deci ...
was an aspect of ''arché'' because it was a rule-based,
customary
Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to:
Traditions, laws, and religion
* Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom
* Norm (social), a r ...
system, which may or may not make laws, i.e. ''nomos''. Thus, the original meaning of ''anomie'' defined anything or anyone against or outside the law, or a condition where the current laws were not applied resulting in a state of illegitimacy or lawlessness.
The contemporary English understanding of the word ''anomie'' can accept greater flexibility in the word "
norm
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envi ...
", and some have used the idea of normlessness to reflect a similar situation to the idea of
anarchy
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...
. However, as used by
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
and later theorists, ''anomie'' is a reaction against or a retreat from the regulatory
social controls of
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...
, and is a completely separate concept from anarchy, which consists of the absence of the roles of rulers and submitted.
Social disorder
Nineteenth-century
French pioneer
sociologist Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
borrowed the term ''anomie'' from French philosopher
Jean-Marie Guyau
Jean-Marie Guyau (28 October 1854 – 31 March 1888) was a French philosopher and poet.
Guyau was inspired by the philosophies of Epicurus, Epictetus, Plato, Immanuel Kant, Herbert Spencer, and Alfred Fouillée, and the poetry and literature of ...
. Durkheim used it in his influential book ''
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
'' (1897) in order to outline the social (and not individual) causes of
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
, characterized by a rapid change of the standards or values of societies (often erroneously referred to as ''normlessness''), and an associated feeling of
alienation and purposelessness. He believed that ''anomie'' is common when the surrounding society has undergone significant changes in its economic fortunes, whether for better or for worse and, more generally, when there is a significant discrepancy between the ideological theories and values commonly professed and what was actually achievable in everyday life. This was contrary to previous theories on suicide which generally maintained that suicide was precipitated by negative events in a person's life and their subsequent
depression.
In Durkheim's view, traditional
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
s often provided the basis for the shared values which the anomic individual lacks. Furthermore, he argued that the
division of labor that had been prevalent in economic life since the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
led individuals to pursue
egoistic
Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normativ ...
ends rather than seeking the good of a larger community.
Robert King Merton
Robert King Merton (born Meyer Robert Schkolnick; July 4, 1910 – February 23, 2003) was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as t ...
also adopted the idea of anomie to develop
strain theory, defining it as the discrepancy between common social goals and the legitimate means to attain those goals. In other words, an individual suffering from anomie would strive to attain the common goals of a specific society yet would not be able to reach these goals legitimately because of the
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such ...
limitations in society. As a result, the individual would exhibit
deviant behavior.
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
notably uses the word ''anomie'' with this meaning.
According to one academic survey,
psychometric
Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...
testing confirmed a link between anomie and
academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, academic fraud and academic integrity are related concepts that refer to various actions on the part of students that go against the expected norms of a school, university or other learning institution. D ...
among university students, suggesting that universities needed to foster codes of ethics among students in order to curb it. In another study, anomie was seen as a "push factor" in tourism.
As an older variant, the 1913 ''
Webster's Dictionary
''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...
'' reports use of the word ''anomie'' as meaning "disregard or violation of the law." However, ''anomie'' as a social disorder is not to be confused with
anarchy
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...
: proponents of
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
claim that anarchy does not necessarily lead to anomie and that
hierarchical
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
command actually increases lawlessness. Some
anarcho-primitivists
Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of civilization (anti-civ) that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale or ...
argue that complex societies, particularly industrial and post-industrial societies, directly cause conditions such as anomie by depriving the individual of self-determination and a relatively small reference group to relate to, such as the band, clan or tribe.
In 2003, José Soltero and Romeo Saravia analyzed the concept of anomie in regards to Protestantism and Catholicism in
El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
. Massive displacement of population in the 1970s, economic and political crises as well as cycles of violence are credited with radically changing the religious composition of the country, rendering it one of the most Protestant countries in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. According to Seltero and Saravia, the rise of Protestantism is conversationally claimed to be caused Catholic failure to "address the spiritual needs of the poor" and the Protestant "deeper quest for salvation, liberation, and eternal life".
However, their research does not support these claims, and showed that Protestantism isn't more popular amongst the poor. Their findings do confirm the assumptions of anomie, with Catholic communities of El Salvador enjoying high social cohesion, while the Protestant communities have been associated with poorer social integration, internal migration and tend to be places deeply affected by the
Salvadoran Civil War
The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...
.
Additionally, Seltero and Saravia found that Salvadoran Catholicism is tied to social activism,
Liberation Theology
Liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed. In certain contexts, it engages socio-economic analyses, with "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". In ...
and the political left, as opposed to the "right wing political orientation, or at least a passive, personally inward orientation, expressed by some Protestant churches".
They conclude that their research contradicts the theory that Protestantism responds to the spiritual needs of the poor more adequately than Catholicism, while also disproving the claim that Protestantism appeals more to women:
The study by Soltero and Saravia has also found a link between Protestantism and no access to healthcare:
Synnomie
Freda Adler Freda Adler (born 1934) is a criminologist and educator, currently serving as Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University and a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She was President of the American Society of Criminology in 1994-1995 ...
coined ''synnomie'' as the opposite of anomie.
Using
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...
's concept of
social solidarity and
collective consciousness,
Adler defined ''synnomie'' as "a congruence of
norms to the point of harmonious accommodation."
Adler described societies in a synnomie state as "characterized by norm conformity, cohesion, intact social controls and norm integration."
Social institutions
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
such as the family, religion and communities, largely serve as sources of norms and
social control to maintain a synnomic society.
In culture
In
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
's
existentialist novel ''
The Stranger'', Meursault—the
bored, alienated protagonist—struggles to construct an individual system of values as he responds to the disappearance of the old. He exists largely in a state of anomie,
as seen from the
apathy
Apathy is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of intere ...
evinced in the opening lines: "'" ("Today mum died. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know").
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
expresses a similar concern about anomie in his novel ''
The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
''.
The Grand Inquisitor
"The Grand Inquisitor" is a story within a story (called a poem by its fictional author, but not in verse) contained within Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1880 novel ''The Brothers Karamazov.'' It is recited by the character Ivan Karamazov, who questions his ...
remarks that in the absence of God and immortal life, everything would be lawful.
In other words, that any act becomes thinkable, that there is no moral compass, which leads to apathy and detachment. This top-down view of ethics has been to some extent superseded by the modern model of the
golden rule.
In ''
The Ink Black Heart
''The Ink Black Heart'' is a crime fiction novel by the English author J. K. Rowling, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is the sixth and the longest novel in the ''Cormoran Strike'' series.
Plot
After Strike and Robin visit the ...
'' of the ''Cormoran Strike'' novels, written by
J.K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the main antagonist goes by the online handle of "Anomie."
See also
References
Sources
*
Durkheim, Émile. 1893. ''
The Division of Labour in Society
''The Division of Labour in Society'' (french: De la division du travail social) is the doctoral dissertation of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, published in 1893. It was influential in advancing sociological theories and thought, with i ...
''.
* Marra, Realino. 1987. ''Suicidio, diritto e anomia. Immagini della morte volontaria nella civiltà occidentale''. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.
* —— 1989. "Geschichte und aktuelle Problematik des Anomiebegriffs." ''Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie'' 11(1):67–80.
* Orru, Marco. 1983. "The Ethics of Anomie: Jean Marie Guyau and Émile Durkheim." ''
British Journal of Sociology
''The British Journal of Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1950 at the London School of Economics. It represents the mainstream of sociological thinking and research and publishes high quality papers on all asp ...
'' 34(4):499–518.
* Riba, Jordi. 1999. ''La Morale Anomique de Jean-Marie Guyau''.
L'Harmattan
Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in W ...
. .
External links
Deflem, Mathieu. 2015. "Anomie: History of the Concept."pp. 718–721 in International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Second Edition (Volume 1), edited by James D. Wright. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
discussed at the Émile Durkheim Archive.
Sociological Inquiry 73(4):471-489, 2003.
{{Authority control
Deviance (sociology)
Émile Durkheim
Social philosophy
Sociological terminology
Sociological theories