Disengagement

Disengagement refers to the varied mechanisms of individual demobilization from civic or political commitment within voluntary groups (parties, unions, nongovernmental organizations, social movements). Literature that more or less directly broaches the question of disengagement emerges from life-course sociology, especially concerning the question of the social effects of aging; from social psychology, concerning the social functioning of small groups and [Page 198]sociability networks; and the sociology of roles, in the Mertonian or interactionist tradition, especially in the literature on cults, divorce, and the professions, but also more recently on political activism and militancy.