Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:42:17.460Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward a General Theory of Anomie The Social Psychology of Disintegration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2019

Seth Abrutyn
Seth Abrutyn*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia [seth.abrutyn@ubc.ca]
Get access

Abstract

Though anomie is one of sociology’s most unique conceptual contributions, its progenitor, Emile Durkheim, was notably ambiguous about its meaning. Consequently, its use in contemporary sociology has varied wildly. In part, the confusion surrounding anomie stems from Durkheim’s insistence that it is caused by deregulation, which has resisted operationalization. Nevertheless, careful consideration of the “four faces” of anomie most prominent in the sociological canon—that is, (1) the anomic division of labor, (2) anomic suicide, (3) Mertonian strain, and (4) the micro-level symbolic-cultural versions—reveals that disruption and disintegration, rather than deregulation, are the common threads woven through each. Drawing from this insight, a new theoretical conceptualization for anomie is offered that defines it as (a) a social psychological force operating at both the (b) individual- or “meso”/corporate unit-level of social reality that results from (c) chronic or acute disruptions that, in turn, generate (d) real or imagined disintegrative pressures. Furthermore, disruptions are not only predicated on the real or imagined loss of social ties (dissolution), but also on the real or imagined loss of attachment to a coherent social reality (disjunction) and/or physical space (dislocation). This recalibration allows anomie to enter into deeper dialogue with a wide range of other phenomena that may in fact share some overlapping elements with anomie related to the pain of potentially losing cherished social relationships and the motivation toward self-harm, anti-social and even pro-social behaviors to escape this social pain.

Résumé

L’anomie a beau être l’une des contributions conceptuelles les plus caractéristiques de la sociologie, son créateur, Émile Durkheim, est resté notablement ambigu quant à sa signification. Par conséquent, son usage dans la sociologie contemporaine a évolué considérablement. La confusion entourant l’anomie découle pour partie de l’insistance de Durkheim sur le fait qu’elle serait causée par le dérèglement, ce qui n’a pu être véritablement opérationnalisé. Néanmoins, l’étude attentive des « quatre visages » de l’anomie qui occupent une place prépondérante dans la tradition sociologique – c’est-à-dire (1) la division anomique du travail, (2) le suicide anomique, (3) la tension Mertonienne et (4) les différentes versions symboliques et culturelles de niveau micro – révèle que la perturbation et l’absence d’intégration, plutôt que le dérèglement, constituent le fil conducteur de chacune d’elles. En s’inspirant de cette idée, cet article propose une nouvelle conceptualisation de l’anomie comme : (a) une force psycho-sociale agissant au niveau (b) de l’individu ou au niveau plus méso d’une unité collective de réalité sociale, et qui résulte (c) de perturbations chroniques ou aiguës qui, à leur tour, génèrent (d) des pressions désintégratrices réelles ou imaginaires. En outre, les perturbations ne sont pas uniquement liées à la perte réelle ou imaginaire de liens sociaux (dissolution), mais également à la perte réelle ou imaginaire d’attachement à une réalité sociale cohérente (disjonction) et/ou à un espace physique (dislocation). Ce recalibrage conceptuel permet à la notion d’anomie d’entretenir un dialogue plus approfondi avec un large éventail d’autres phénomènes, avec lesquels elle partage parfois certains éléments, liés à la douleur de perdre des relations sociales chères ou encore à la motivation, pour échapper à cette souffrance sociale, de se nuire à soi-même ou d’adopter des comportements antisociaux et même parfois pro-sociaux.

Zusammenfassung

Obgleich die Anomie zu einem der charakteristischsten konzeptuellen Beiträge der Soziologie zählt, war ihr Gründervater, Emile Durkheim, in Sachen Bedeutung mehr als doppeldeutig. Infolgedessen wird sie in der zeitgenössischen Soziologie ganz unterschiedlich genutzt. Die der Anomie anhaftende Konfusion geht zum Teil auf die Beharrlichkeit Durkheims zurück, der ihre Entstehung in der Deregulierung sieht, was nicht wirklich operativ bewiesen werden konnte. Nichtsdestotrotz zeigt eine aufmerksame Betrachtung der im soziologischen Kanon sehr bekannten “vier Seiten” der Anomie –1. die anomische Teilung der Arbeit, 2. der anomische Selbstmord, 3. die mertonische Spannung und 4. die verschiedenen symbolischen und kulturellen Varianten der Mikroebene – dass Störungen und mangelnde Integration, mehr als Deregulierung, den Leitfaden jeder einzelnen darstellen. Ausgehend von dieser Idee schlägt der Beitrag eine neue Konzeptualisierung der Anomie vor: a) eine psycho-soziale Kraft agiert b) auf dem Niveau des Individuums oder mehr auf der Mesoebene der sozialen Realität einer kollektiven Einheit, woraus sich c) chronische oder zugespitzte Störungen ergeben, die schließlich d) einen reellen oder erdachten desintegrierenden Druck ausüben. Darüberhinaus sind die Störungen nicht nur auf den reellen oder erdachten Verlust sozialer Netze (Auflösung), sondern auch auf den reellen oder erdachten Verlust von Verbindungen zu einer kohärenten sozialen Realität (Trennung) und/oder einem physischen Raum (Zerfall) zurückzuführen. Dieses konzeptuelle Austarieren ermöglicht es dem Anomiebegriff, einen tiefer gehenden Dialog mit einem breiten Spektrum anderer Phänomene einzugehen, die in Verbindung zu dem schmerzlichen Verlust der so wichtigen sozialen Beziehungen stehen oder zu der Motivation diesem sozialen Leiden zu entgehen, sich selbst zu schaden oder unsoziale und manchmal sogar pro-soziale Verhaltensweisen anzunehmen.

Keywords

AnomieDurkheimDisintegrationShameSociological TheoryAnomieDurkheimDésintégrationHonteThéorie sociologiqueAnomieDurkheimDesintegrationSchandesoziologische Theorie
Type
Varia
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , April 2019 , pp. 109 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrutyn, Seth, 2014. Revisiting Institutionalism in Sociology: Putting the “Institution” Back in Institutional Analysis (New York, Routledge).Google Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth, 2015. “Pollution-Purification Rituals, Collective Memory, and the Evolution of Religion: How Cultural Trauma Shaped Ancient Israel,” American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 3 (1): 123-155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Carter, Michael J., 2015. “The Decline in Shared Collective Conscience as Found in the Shifting Norms and Values of Etiquette Manuals,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 45 (3): 352-376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Lawrence, Kirk, 2010. “From Chiefdoms to States: Toward an Integrative Theory of the Evolution of Polity,” Sociological Perspectives, 53 (3): 419-442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Lawrence, Kirk, 2014. Revisiting Institutionalism in Sociology: Putting the “Institution” Back in Institutional Analysis (New York, Routledge).Google Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Mueller, Anna S., 2014. “The Socioemotional Foundations of Suicide: A Microsociological View of Durkheim’s Suicide,” Sociological Theory, 32 (4): 327-351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Mueller, Anna S., 2014, 2016. “When Too Much Integration and Regulation Hurt: Re-Envisioning Durkheim’s Altruistic Suicide,” Society and Mental Health, 6 (1): 56-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrutyn, Seth and Mueller, Anna S., 2018. “Towards a Cultural-Structural Theory of Suicide: Examining Excessive Regulation and its Discontents,” Sociological Theory, 36 (1): 48-66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, Robert S., 1992. “Foundations for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency,” Criminology, 30 (1): 47-87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, Robert S., 2001. “Building on the Foundation of General Strain Theory: Specifying the Types of Strain Most Likely to Lead to Crime and Delinquency,” Journal of research in crime and delinquency, 38 (4): 319-361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumeister, Ray, 1990. “Suicide as Escape From Self,” Psychological Review, 97 (1): 90-113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, Howard S., 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (New York, The Free Press).Google Scholar
Berger, Peter, 1969. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York, Anchor Books).Google Scholar
Besnard, Philippe, 1987. L’Anomie: ses usages et ses fonctions dans la discipline sociologique depuis Durkheim (Paris, Puf).Google Scholar
Besnard, Philippe, 1988. “The True Nature of Anomie,” Sociological Theory, 6 (1): 91-95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, Peter M., 1964. Exchange and Power in Social Life (New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers).Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, 1989. Crime, Shame, and Reintegration (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breault, K. D., 1994. “Was Durkheim Right? A Critical Survey of the Empirical Literature on Le Suicide,” in Lester, D., ed., Emile Durkheim: Le Suicide 100 Years Later (Philadelphia, The Charles Press: 11-29).Google Scholar
Burke, Peter J. and Stets, Jan E., 2009. Identity Theory (New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleary, Anne, 2012. “A Suicidal Action, Emotional Expression, and the Performance of Masculinities,” Social Science and Medicine, 74: 498-505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deflem, Mathieu, 2015. “Anomie: History of the Concept,” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, (Oxford, Elsevier: 718-721).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deflem, Mathieu, 2018. “Anomie, Strain, and Opportunity Structure: Robert K. Merton’s Paradigm of Deviant Behavior,” in Triplett, R. A., ed., The Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Criminology (Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell: 140-155).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile, 1893 [1997]. The Division of Labor in Society (New York, The Free Press).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile, 1897 [1951]. Suicide: A Study in Sociology (Glencoe, Ill., Free Press).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile, 1915 [1965]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Ebaugh, Helen R. F., 1988. Becoming an Ex: The Process of Role Exit (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Kai T., 1978. Everything in its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (New York, Simon and Schuster).Google Scholar
Erikson, Kai T., 1994. A New Species of Trouble: The Modern Experience of Human Disasters (New York, Norton).Google Scholar
Fagan, Brian, 1999. Floods, Famines and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (London, Pimlico).Google Scholar
Fagan, Brian, 2004. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization (New York, Basic Books).Google Scholar
Franks, David D., 2006. “The Neuroscience of Emotions,” in Stets, J. E. and Turner, J. H., eds, Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions (New York, Springer: 38-62).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gane, Mike, 2005. “Durkheim’s Scenography of Suicide,” Economy and Society, 34 (2): 223-240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold, 1964. “Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities,” Social Problems, 11 (3): 225-250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, James, 2003. “Shame, Guilt, and Violence,” Social Research, 70 (4): 1149-1180.Google Scholar
Gilman, Stephen E., Kawachi, Ichiro, Fitzmaurice, Garrett M. and Buka, Stephen L., 2003. “Socio-Economic Status, Family Disruption and Residential Stability in Childhood: Relation to Onset, Recurrence and Remission of Major Depression,” Psychological Medicine, 33 (8): 1341-1355.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goffman, Erving, 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (Garden City, NY, Anchor Books).Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving, 1963a. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving, 1963b. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving, 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (New York, Pantheon Books).Google Scholar
Gottwald, Norman K., 1962. Studies in the Book of Lamentations (London, SCM Press).Google Scholar
Gould, R. V., 1991. “Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871,” American Sociological Review, 56: 716-729.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawlbachs, Maurice, 1978. The Causes of Suicide (New York, The Free Press).Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael, 1987. Principles of Group Solidarity (Berkeley, University of California Press).Google Scholar
Hegtvedt, Karen, 2006. “Justice Frameworks,” in Burke, P. J., ed., Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (Stanford, Stanford University Press: 46-69).Google Scholar
Heise, David, 1977. “Social Action as the Control of Affect,” Behavioral Sciences, 22 (3): 163-177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilbert, Richard A., 1986. “Anomie and the Moral Regulation of Reality: The Durkheimian Tradition in Modern Relief,” Sociological Theory, 4 (1): 1-19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilbert, Richard A., 1989. “Durkheim and Merton on Anomie: An Unexplored Contrast and Its Deritatives,” Social Problems, 36 (3): 242-250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie, 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (Berkeley, University of California Press).Google Scholar
Hogg, Michael A., 2006. “Social Identity Theory.” in Burke, P. J., Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (Stanford, Stanford University Press: 111-136).Google Scholar
Horwitz, Allan V., 2002. Creating Mental Illness (Chicago, University of Chicago).Google Scholar
Hutchison, Emma and Roland, Bleiker, 2008. “Emotional Reconciliation: Reconstituting Identity and Community and Trauma,” European Journal of Social Theory, 11 (3): 385-403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasper, James M. and Poulsen, Jane D., 1995. “Recruiting Strangers and Friends: Moral Shocks and Social Networks of Animal Rights and Anti-Nuclear Protests,” Social Problems, 42 (4): 493-512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Barclay, 1965. “Durkheim’s One Cause of Suicide,” American Sociological Review, 30 (6): 875-886.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalafat, John and Lester, David, 2000. “Shame and Suicide: A Case Study,” Death Studies, 24: 157-162.Google Scholar
Kolves, Kairi, Ide, Naoko and de Leo, Diego, 2011. “Marital Breakdown, Shame and Suicidality in Men: A Direct Link?,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 41 (2): 149-159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawler, Edward J., Thye, Shane and Yoon, Jeongkoo, 2009. Social Commitments in a Depersonalized World (New York, Russell Sage).Google Scholar
LeDoux, Joseph, 2000. “Cognitive-Emotional Interactions: Listening to the Brain,” in Lane, R. D. and Nadel, L., eds, Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion (New York, Oxford University Press: 129-155).Google Scholar
Lester, David, 1997. “The Role of Shame in Suicide,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 27 (4): 352-361.Google ScholarPubMed
Lucas, Jeffrey W. and Phelan, Jo C., 2012. “Stigma and Status: The Interrelation of Two Theoretical Perspectives,” Social Psychological Quarterly, 75 (4): 310-333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lukes, Steven, 1977. “Alienation and Anomie,” in Lukes, S., Essays in Social Theory (New York, Columbia University Press: 74-95).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maryanski, Alexandra, 2018. Émile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods (New York, Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marwah, Sanjay and Deflem, Mathieu, 2006. “Revisiting Merton: Continuities in the Theory of Anomie-and-Opportunity-Structures,” in Deflem, M., ed., Sociological Theory and Criminological Research: Views from Europe and the United States (Amsterdam, Elsevier/JAI Press: 57-76).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauss, Marcel, 1967. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (New York, W. W. Norton).Google Scholar
McCall, George J. and Simmons, J. L., 1978. Identities and Interactions (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Merton, Robert K., 1938. “Social Structure and Anomie,” American Sociological Review, 3 (5): 672-682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, Robert K., 1967. Social Theory and Social Structure (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Messner, Steven F., 1988. “Merton’s ‘Social Structure and Anomie’: The Road Not Taken,” Deviant Behavior, 9 (1): 33-53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messner, Steven F. and Rosenfeld, Richard, 2009. “Institutional Anomie Theory: A Macro-Sociological Explanation of Crime,” in Krohn, M., Lizotte, A. and Hall, G. P., eds, Handbook of Crime and Deviance (New York, Springer: 209-224).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messner, Steven F., Rosenfeld, Richard and Baumer, Eric P., 2004. “Dimensions of Social Capital and Rates of Criminal Homicide,” American Sociological Review, 69 (6): 882-903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meštrović, Stjepan G., 1987. “Durkheim’s Concept of Anomie Considered as a ‘Total’ Social Fact,” The British Journal of Sociology, 38 (4): 567-583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, Andrew, 2014. “Addressing the Problem of Cultural Anchoring: An Identity-Based Model of Culture in Action,” Social Psychological Quarterly, 77 (2): 210-227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokros, Hartmut B., 1995. “Suicide and Shame,” American Behavioral Scientist, 38 (8): 1091-1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neimeyer, Robert A., Klass, Dennis and Robert Dennis, Michael, 2014. “A Social Constructionist Account of Grief: Loss and the Narration of Meaning,” Death Studies, 38: 485-498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orrù, Marco, 1987. Anomie: History and Meanings (Boston, Allen & Unwin).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1951. The Social System (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press).Google Scholar
Perry, Brea L., 2014. “Symptoms, Stigma, or Secondary Social Disruption: Three Mechanisms of Network Dynamics in Severe Mental Illness,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 31 (1): 32-63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poblete, Renato S. J. and Odea, Thomas F., 1960. “Anomie and the ‘Quest for Community’: The Formation of Sects among the Puerto Ricans of New York,” The American Catholic Sociological Review, 21 (1): 18-36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, Whitney, 1976. Durkheim’s Suicide: A Classic Analyzed (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Powell, Elwin H., 1962. “The Evolution of the American City and the Emergence of Anomie: A Culture Case Study of Buffalo, New York 1810-1910,” British Journal of Sociology, 13 (2): 156-168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retzinger, Suzanne M., 1991. Violent Emotions: Shame and Rage in Marital Quarrels (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgeway, Cecilia L., 2006. “Status Construction Theory,” in Burke, P. J., ed., Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (Stanford, Stanford University Press: 301-323).Google Scholar
Scheff, Thomas, 1997. Emotions, the Social Bond, and Human Reality (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stryker, Sheldon, 1980. Symbolic Interactionism: A Social Structural Version (Menlo Park, CA, The Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company).Google Scholar
Summers-Effler, Erika, 2009. Laughing Saints and Righteous Heroes (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Tangney, June Price and Dearing, Ronda L., 2002. Shame and Guilt (New York, The Guilford).Google Scholar
TenHouten, Warren D., 2016. “Normlessness, Anomie, and Emotions”, Sociological Forum, 31 (2): 465-486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Jonathan H., 2007. Human Emotions: A Sociological Theory (New York, Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Jonathan H., 2010. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 2: Microdynamics (New York, Springer).Google Scholar