Anomie

In sociology, anomie (/ˈænəmi/) is a social condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow.^[1]^[2] Anomie is believed to possibly evolve from conflict of belief systems^[3] and causes breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community (both economic and primary socialization).^[4] 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 in his influential book Suicide (1897). Émile Durkheim suggested that Protestants exhibited a greater degree of anomie than Catholics.^[5] However, Durkheim first introduced the concept of anomie in his 1893 work The Division of Labour in Society. Durkheim never used the term normlessness;^[6] rather, he described anomie as "derangement", and "an insatiable will."^[7] Durkheim used the term "the malady of the infinite" because desire without limit can never be fulfilled; it only becomes more intense.^[8]

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 ...^[9]

^ Macionis, John J.; Gerber, Linda M. (2010). Sociology (7th Canadian ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-13-700161-3.
^ "anomie". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
^ Nickell Knutson, Jeanne (1972). The Human Basis of the Polity: A Psychological Study of Political Men. Aldine treatises in social psychology. Aldine-Atherton. p. 146. ISBN 9780202240404. Retrieved 27 October 2019. To de Grazia and Merton, such anomie as this stems not from a lack of rules, but rather, from conflict between the directives of two belief systems.
^ Terry Long; Terry Robertson (24 January 2019). "Youth Development and Therapeutic Recreation". Foundations of Therapeutic Recreation: Perceptions, Philosophies, and Practices. Human Kinetics. ISBN 978-1-4925-4367-1. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
^ Dean, Dwight G.; Reeves, Jon A. (1962). "Anomie: A Comparison of a Catholic and a Protestant Sample". Sociometry. 25 (2): 209–212. doi:10.2307/2785951. JSTOR 2785951.
^ Meštrović, Stjepan Gabriel (1988). Emile Durkheim and the Reformation of Sociology. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield (published 1993). p. 60. ISBN 9780847678679. Retrieved 27 October 2019. The contemporary understanding of Durkheim's concept of anomie as 'normlesness' was begun by Parsons (1937) and Merton (1957). But [...] Durkheim never used the term 'normlesness.'
^ Mestrovic, Stjepan (1993). Emile Durkheim and The Reformation of Sociology. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780847678679. But according to Durkheim, there could be no such thing as "moral anomie", because anomie as the lack of restraint upon the insatiable "will" is the essence of immorality ...
^ Cotterrell, Roger (1999). Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0804738238. OCLC 43421884.
^ Star, Susan Leigh; Bowker, Geoffrey C.; Neumann, Laura J. (2003). "Transparency At Different Levels of Scale: Convergence between Information Artifacts and Social Worlds". Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262025447.

[1] Macionis, John J.; Gerber, Linda M. (2010). Sociology (7th Canadian ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-13-700161-3.

[2] "anomie". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.

[3] Nickell Knutson, Jeanne (1972). The Human Basis of the Polity: A Psychological Study of Political Men. Aldine treatises in social psychology. Aldine-Atherton. p. 146. ISBN 9780202240404. Retrieved 27 October 2019. To de Grazia and Merton, such anomie as this stems not from a lack of rules, but rather, from conflict between the directives of two belief systems.

[4] Terry Long; Terry Robertson (24 January 2019). "Youth Development and Therapeutic Recreation". Foundations of Therapeutic Recreation: Perceptions, Philosophies, and Practices. Human Kinetics. ISBN 978-1-4925-4367-1. Retrieved 6 December 2019.

[5] Dean, Dwight G.; Reeves, Jon A. (1962). "Anomie: A Comparison of a Catholic and a Protestant Sample". Sociometry. 25 (2): 209–212. doi:10.2307/2785951. JSTOR 2785951.

[6] Meštrović, Stjepan Gabriel (1988). Emile Durkheim and the Reformation of Sociology. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield (published 1993). p. 60. ISBN 9780847678679. Retrieved 27 October 2019. The contemporary understanding of Durkheim's concept of anomie as 'normlesness' was begun by Parsons (1937) and Merton (1957). But [...] Durkheim never used the term 'normlesness.'

[7] Mestrovic, Stjepan (1993). Emile Durkheim and The Reformation of Sociology. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780847678679. But according to Durkheim, there could be no such thing as "moral anomie", because anomie as the lack of restraint upon the insatiable "will" is the essence of immorality ...

[8] Cotterrell, Roger (1999). Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0804738238. OCLC 43421884.

[quot0-9] Star, Susan Leigh; Bowker, Geoffrey C.; Neumann, Laura J. (2003). "Transparency At Different Levels of Scale: Convergence between Information Artifacts and Social Worlds". Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262025447.

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