Durkheim 's Theory Of Anomie

A significant concept developed by Durkheim is that of anomie, a term used to describe the breakdown of social solidarity and a state of normlessness in which members of society begin to feel alienated. In an anomic society, there is no longer a societal consensus as to what behavior is considered normal or deviant and people no longer know how to react in various social contexts. Durkheim stated that anomie would result for two reasons. The first reason was attributed to the the division of labor in society creating inequality, class conflict, poor social relationships, and a dearth of meaningful roles (Willis, 1982). Durkheim felt that a lack of meaningful roles in particular, caused individuals to accept social status and occupations that were below their level of talent and potential. This created frustration and strain as individuals felt as though they were not given the same opportunity to achieve success as others. The second cause of anomie that Durkheim stated was the disparity between needs and means (Willis, 1982). This meant that in order for happiness to exist within an individual, they must have a realistic chance of achieving their needs based upon the means they have access to. Durkheim felt that a large discrepancy between needs and available means would lead an individual to become hopeless with their situation and contemplate suicide.

Emile Durkheim, was a French sociologist. His theories and writings helped establish the foundations of modern sociology. Durkheim disagreed with most social theorists of the late 1800 's because they thought that individual psychology was the basis of sociology. Durkheim regarded sociology as the study of the society that surrounds and influences the individual. Durkheim explained his theories in his book The Rules of Sociological Method (1895). He says there is relationship between moral values and religious beliefs, which establishes unity in society.Emile Durkheim has long been viewed as one of the founders of the so called variables oriented approach to sociological investigation. Durkheim developed the theory that societies are bound together by two sources of unity. He called these sources mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity refers to similarities that many people in the society share, such as values and religious beliefs. Organic solidarity results from the division of labor into specialized jobs. Durkheim believed that the division of labor makes people depend on one another and thus helps create unity in a society. Durkheim studied thousands of cases of suicide to demonstrate his theory that a person commits suicide because of the

Durkheim’s theory of anomie and Marx’s theory of alienation have had a very strong influence on the sociological understandings of modern life. Critically compare these two concepts.

Along with Marx and Weber, Durkheim is considered one of the founding members of modern sociology. He is also credited with making sociology a science through his application of scientific and empirical research. Durkheim believed that sociology should be seen as a science separate from other sciences such as psychology, by studying “social facts” objectively as things. (Kiviston, 2011)

Durkheim was a functionalist, and theorised that a holistic social narrative could be identified which would explain individual behaviour. He argued that, whilst society was made up of its members, it was greater than the sum of its parts, and was an external pressure that determined the behaviour of the individuals within it. At that time, suicide rates in Europe were rising, and so the causes of suicide were on the agenda. Since suicide is seen as an intrinsically personal and individual action, establishing it as having societal causes would be a strong defence for Durkheim’s functionalist perspective. Durkheim used the comparative method to study the official suicide rates of various European countries. While he was not the first to

The concept of anomie exemplifies Durkheim’s agenda to distinguish sociology as a discipline because it adheres to his conception of the social fact (social phenomena) as a unique scientific entity and sociology’s primary object of study. This philosophy separates social facts from the facts of biology and psychology. The primary qualities of a social fact are externality (the idea that the motivation to do something exists outside of an individual) and constraint (the idea that it limits what individuals can do). Anomie occurs when social facts loose their power and fail to function in the way they usually do under stable conditions. If, by Durkheim’s logic, social facts have such awesome power over individuals that they require a unique area of scientific study, it is entirely reasonable to assume that a lack of social facts would have a dramatic and harmful effect on a population. Durkheim uses empirical evidence, another characteristic of scientific study, to demonstrate the correlation between anomie and high rates of suicide. In this way Durkheim proves that one cannot think fully about suicide without a sociological perspective, furthering his argument for the existence of sociology as a discipline.

Criminality has always been a topic of interest and debate. Theorists have attempted to explain why it is that criminals behave in such a deviant manner. Every theory has a different focus and way of explaining why people commit crime. Anomie Theory, also known as Strain Theory, emerged in 1938. The concept of anomie was brought about by Emile Durkheim, then expanded by Robert Merton.

Emile Durkheim is a prominent figure in Sociology, and is often referred to as one of the founding fathers of the subject, alongside Marx and Weber. This is due to his work on studying Suicide in his book ‘Suicide: A Study in Sociology’, this work was monumental in the field of Sociology as Durkheim was the first sociologist to suggest that society can affect what is probably the most private action a person can perform; ending their life.

Emile Durkheim was born in 1858, in a small community in Alsace-Lorraine, and became a professor of sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris. Emile Durkheim came from an early positivist school of thought that insisted sociology needs to be looked at as a scientific discipline, which could be modelled off the natural sciences. This approach helped Durkheim use scientific methods of analysis, statistics and empirical information to assist in determining circumstances that contributed to human behavior, for which the psychology discipline couldn’t answer at the time. Durkheim was the pioneer of social science and contributed a tremendous amount to the social science community.

Although Durkheim wrote explicitly on sociological methods in The Rules of the Sociological Method, the theme of majority of his works is still known to be pre-eminence and focused on methodology (112, bailey). As an early functionalist, he employed the organismic analogy using scientific methods in an attempt to better understand how the society worked. An analogy is a way of comparison between one thing and another typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification (oxford dictionary). With this, Durkheim regards the society as a whole, with individual structures adhering to specific developments and operations in order to maintain its existence- just like if it were an organism with requisite needs by analogy.

He focused heavily on the area of science and over emphasised on the reality of independence and externally existing society. Durkheim outlined the divisions of labour by distinguishing between mechanical forms of solidarity and organic solidarity. He disagreed with “psychological reductionism” displaying that even an issue like suicide has to be understood in terms of the level of the individual’s interactions with others and taking their psychological state into account. Durkheim examined the significance of “Social currents & Social Facts” in society. An important term outlined by Durkheim is Anomie which is a form of social breakdown in which the standards that would normally occur in a particular situation does not operate. Elton Mayo (1880-1949) was greatly inspired by Durkheim’s work and created the concept of the Human Relations School. The Hawthorn Studies was started in Chicago by examining the effects of workshop lighting had on workers productivity. It concluded that the close interests shown in the workers had brought the group together as a team and increased commitment motivation and collaboration. In “Systems Thinking” these are societies which are viewed as if they were independent bodies controlling energy and resources with the environment to live. Systems thinking are valuable in its importance on arrangements and outlines in social life. It is therefore a beneficial style

Anomie theory is important for explaining whether crime is a normal or abnormal (pathological) social phenomenon (Cartwright, 2011). It describes a lack of social norms, lawlessness and normlessness (Cartwright, 2013). In detail, it is a breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community. This theory was first coined by Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist in his book Suicide published in 1897 (Cartwright, 2013). Later on, Robert Merton, the President of American Sociological Association, developed the link between anomie and social structure. Unlike Durkheim, Merton used the notion from Durkheim’s anomie theory and explains that social structure could exert pressure on an individual and directly cause deviance (Cartwright,

In this essay, I will go on to examine Durkheim’s theory of social facts from his book and evaluate how might it be used in contemporary society, ‘The Rules of Sociological Method.’ Durkheim is one of the pioneers of the functionalism and is considered to be one of the founders of classic sociology.

In modern day societies we are surrounded by several social phenomena that are specified for the whole society. Some problems in society are caused by different social phenomena that can hinder individuals or the society that they live in as whole. Chapter 6 of Researching Theories of Crime and Deviance indicated, “ anomie is a concept associated with Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton. Durkheim introduced the term in 1893” (Williams III, Frank, McShane, Marilyn, Criminological Theory 7th edition, pg 65). He described anomie as normlessness, which he viewed the general rules of society had broken down and people do not know what to expect from each other. Basically he explained that there was instability in society, which leads to a lack of a person’s purpose.

According to Emile Durkheim social phenomena must be explained sociologically not psychologically. In his now classic work, Suicide he was interested in explaining a social phenomenon, suicide, and employed both data and theory to offer an explanation. By aggregating data for large groups of people in Europe, Durkheim was able to discern patterns in suicide rates and connect those patterns with another concept (or variable): religious affiliation. Durkheim found that Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than were Catholics. At this point, Durkheim 's analysis was still in the data stage; he had not proposed an explanation for the different suicide rates of the two groups. It was when Durkheim introduced the ideas of anomie and social solidarity that he began