Anomie: Durkheim and Merton

Anomie: Durkheim and Merton The classical theorists—Marx, Weber, Durkheim—reflect on the dark side of modern life. Modernity had profoundly changed the way people lived and the way society was organized. Modernity sees the emergence of the middle class, it is a time when “fewer and fewer of the privileged could relax as more and more of the disadvantaged could speak” (Lemert, p.15.) In the name of progress, modernity, promising a better world (tomorrow) …

…dinner, card clubs, and various other group activities. He shows that social relationship and civic engagement, or their lack measurably affect public health and social justice. He also finds striking parallels between the situation today and the declining levels of social interaction in the late 1800’s, as reported by Durkheim. As the technological revolution provides us with infinite ways of communicating with one another, it also brings about a disengagement, a chronic state of anomie.