Anomie

Anomie refers to the improper operation or relative absence of normative regulation in an aggregate entity or environment, ranging from groups and communities to entire societies and the globe. Most conceptualizations of anomie stress normative breakdown, making this aspect critical to understanding any form of anomie. Its importance lies in the impacts and effects of inadequate regulation on individual, group, and societal pathologies. For these and other reasons, [Page 46]anomie has been an integral part of philosophical and social science debates about the nature of modern individuals and societies. Anomie-related research is thus prominent in multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology, criminology, criminal justice, and political science.

Anomie varies by duration, intensity, source, and location. Some of its main types and typologies incorporating space and time elements include chronic, acute, simple, political, economic, institutional, cultural, social, and psychological anomie. Anomie conditions create unstable and uncertain environments where individuals face difficulties in coordination and cooperation and in determining whether or which formal and informal norms to follow. Generally, all types of anomie are consequential for the viability and predictability of social relationships, in the functioning of societal institutions and groups, and in producing crime and other pathological and deviant behavior. Although sometimes viewed in absolutist terms, anomie is a relative phenomenon with particular spatial and temporal referents.

The origin of anomie traces back to the notions in classical Greece of anomia and anomus, defined respectively as lawlessness and “without law.” The use of anomie in Renaissance England debates about human nature, religion, and the law rested on these earlier Greek roots. The view of anomie in these debates was as a condition of society with a lack of, or a lack of compliance with, laws and as representing a situation that might emerge without a rational foundation of law.

Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) presented the most widely known historical use of anomie, borrowing the term from French philosopher Jean Marie Guyau (1854–88). Guyau advocated an individual-based notion of anomie, viewing it as a positive condition countering the dominance of religious dogma and morality. Although Durkheim's interpretation offered some positive features and a few similarities to Guyau's individual-level anomie, Durkheim's work is largely negative and emphasized social institutions and societal changes as responsible for anomie. Durkheim's activist side emphasized restoration and repair of society's normative systems using social institutions to counter any negative aspects of anomie conditions. Academically, Durkheim's applications of anomie exemplify early positivistic sociological methodologies.

Anomie, for Durkheim, is a moral judgment on the condition of society and the basis for normative prescriptions on needed changes, rather than a moral or psychological state of an individual. Sociological and social science conceptualizations of anomie differ specifically on this point with their psychological and philosophical counterparts. Most macro-sociological conceptions of anomie build upon the work of Durkheim in viewing societal conditions as having a reality independent and distinct from the mental and emotional characteristics and actions of individuals. Further, these conditions including anomie were external to individuals and constrained individual behavior. Durkheim saw modern individuals with natural egoistical desires but with inherently social attributes that required cultivation and regulation.

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