Anomie is a concept developed by Émile Durkheim to describe a state of normlessness, a breakdown or weakening of the shared social norms and moral regulation that ordinarily guide individual desire and behavior. Durkheim first used the term in The Division of Labour in Society (1893) and developed it much further in Suicide (1897), describing anomie as a condition of unregulated, 'insatiable' desire, arising especially during periods of rapid economic, social, or political disruption when established expectations no longer match what is actually achievable. He used the concept to explain 'anomic suicide,' a category of suicide he attributed to societies or individuals whose regulating norms had been disrupted. Decades later, sociologist Robert Merton reworked the concept into his 'strain theory,' redefining anomie as a structural mismatch between culturally prescribed goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them.
Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own accountAnomie is a state of normlessness or weakened social regulation, in which individual desires and expectations are no longer effectively bounded or guided by shared social norms, producing disorientation and, in Durkheim's account, elevated suicide risk. 1 Origin YearSourced to the subject's own accountFirst used in The Division of Labour in Society (1893); substantially developed in Suicide (1897). Cross-Tradition Connections
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Open Questions (1 open question)
Is Robert Merton's strain-theory reformulation of anomie a faithful development of Émile Durkheim's original concept, or a substantially different theory that merely borrows Durkheim's term?
Durkheim's anomie (1893, 1897) covers both acute, crisis-driven normlessness and a more chronic form of unregulated desire, while Merton's mid-20th-century strain theory narrows the concept to a structural mismatch between culturally prescribed success goals and the legitimate means to achieve them; scholars disagree on how much continuity actually exists between the two versions.
What would resolve this A close textual comparison of Durkheim's Suicide (1897) against Merton's own stated debts to Durkheim, tracing which specific claims Merton's strain theory retains, drops, or redefines.
Sociology (theory)Wikipedia: Anomie
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