Anomie is a "condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals". It
is the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community e.g. if under
unruly scenarios resulting in fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory
values. It was popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide.
Durkheim never uses the term normlessness; rather, he describes anomie as "derangement",
and "an insatiable will". 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:
Most sociologists associate the term with Durkheim, who used the concept to speak of
the ways in which an individual's actions are matched, or integrated, with a system
of social norms and practices… anomie is a mismatch, not simply the absence of norms.
Thus, a society with too much rigidity and little individual discretion could also produce
a kind of anomie... Thus, fatalistic suicide arises when a person is too rule-governed...
History In 1893, Durkheim introduced the concept of
anomie to describe the mismatch of collective guild labour to evolving societal needs when
the guild was homogeneous in its constituency. He equated homogeneous skills to mechanical
solidarity whose inertia retarded adaptation. He contrasted this with the self-regulating
behaviour of a division of labour based on differences in constituency, equated to organic
solidarity, whose lack of inertia made it sensitive to need 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. When solidarity is organic, anomie is impossible.
Sensitivity to mutual needs promotes evolution in the division of labour. "Producers, being
near consumers, can easily reckon the extent of the needs to be satisfied. Equilibrium
is established without any trouble and production regulates itself." Durkheim contrasted the
condition of anomie as being the result of mechanical solidarity:
But on the contrary, if some opaque environment is interposed... relations [are] rare, are
not repeated enough... are too intermittent. Contact is no longer sufficient. The producer
can no longer embrace the market at a glance, nor even in thought. He can no longer see
its limits, since it is, so to speak limitless. Accordingly, production becomes unbridled
and unregulated.
Durkheim's use of the term anomie was about a phenomenon of industrialization—mass-regimentation
that could not adapt due to its own inertia—its resistance to change, which 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. But 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.
Etymology
The word comes from Greek ανομία, namely the prefix a- "without", and nomos "law".
The Greeks distinguished between nomos, and arché. For example, a monarch is a single
ruler but he or she might still be subject to, and not exempt from, the prevailing laws,
i.e. nomos. In the original city state democracy, the majority rule was an aspect of arché
because it was a rule-based, customary system, which might or might 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", and some have used the
idea of normlessness to reflect a similar situation to the idea of anarchy. But, as
used by Émile Durkheim and later theorists, anomie is a reaction against or a retreat
from the regulatory social controls of society, and is a completely separate concept from
anarchy, which consists of the absence of the roles of rulers and submitted.
Social disorder The nineteenth century French pioneer sociologist
Émile Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau and used it in
his influential book Suicide, outlining the social causes of suicide, characterized by
a rapid change of the standards or values of societies, 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 religions 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 led individuals
to pursue egoistic ends rather than seeking the good of a larger community. Robert King
Merton 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 limitations in society. As a result, the individual would exhibit
deviant behavior. Friedrich Hayek notably uses the word anomie with this meaning.
According to one academic survey, psychometric testing confirmed a link between anomie and
academic dishonesty 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 Webster 1913 Dictionary
reports use of the word anomie as meaning "disregard or violation of the law" but anomie
as a social disorder is not to be confused with anarchy. Proponents of Anarchism claim
that anarchy does not necessarily lead to anomie and that hierarchical command actually
increases lawlessness. Some anarcho-primitivists like Ted Kaczynski argue that conditions such
as anomie are directly caused by complex societies, particularly industrial and post-industrial
societies due to their deprivation of individual self-determination and a relatively small
reference group to relate to, such as the band, clan, or tribe.
In literature, film, and theatre In Albert Camus's existentialist novel The
Stranger, the bored, alienated protagonist Meursault 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 evinced in the opening lines: "Aujourd’hui, maman est
morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas". Fyodor Dostoyevsky expressed a similar concern
about anomie in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov. The Grand Inquisitor 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.
See also
References
Bibliography Durkheim, Émile.. The Division of Labour
in Society Realino Marra, Suicidio, diritto e anomia.
Immagini della morte volontaria nella civiltà occidentale, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane,
Napoli, 1987 Realino Marra, "Geschichte und aktuelle Problematik
des Anomiebegriffs", Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie, XI-1, 1989, 67-80.
Marco Orru. "The Ethics of Anomie: Jean Marie Guyau and Émile Durkheim", British Journal
of Sociology, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 499–518 Riba, Jordi. La Morale Anomique de Jean-Marie
Guyau. L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-7384-7772-9 External links
"Anomie" discussed at the Émile Durkheim Archive.