Week Ten - Anomie

Question 1

Who is the main individual of this theory?

Answer 1

Emile Durkheim

Question 2

Society has a reality apart from the individuals who comprise…

Answer 2

Society has a reality apart from the individuals who comprise it. Society functions as an organism - based on mutual dependence and solidarity, and a ‘collective consciousness’ – a totality of beliefs and sentiments common to citizens of the same society

Together, the various rules, customs and relationships within society form a distinctive culture

Its component parts (‘diverse specialisms’) need to maintain balance in order to produce social order

This is achieved through institutions – laws, customs, practices, behaviours - which regulate rights and obligations.

Question 3

When society loses balance it leads to..

Answer 3

When society loses balance it leads to ‘anomie’– a lack of consensus and interdependence – a state of ‘normlessness’. This results in disagreement about social norms and values

This is most likely to happen in periods of rapid social change – e.g.. newly industrialized (organic); as compared to traditional, small scale (mechanical) societies.

Economic growth heightens expectations which, if they are not fulfilled or regulated, leads to ‘anomie’.

So anomie is a constant property of capitalist societies

And it is also a state of being - the social-psychological outcomes of it are alienation, dissatisfaction, frustration

Question 4

Durkeim examined this idea by…

Answer 4

Durkheim examined this idea by investigating the causes of suicide and divorce (rather than crime).

Generally, he was more interested in the way in which punishment reinforces social norms.

But he did argue that a society without crime is impossible, even undesirable.

In such a society the constraints of the collective conscious would be so rigid that no one would oppose them, and that would be unhealthy.