Anomie

noun

/ˈæn.ə.mi/

A state of normlessness or social disintegration in which shared norms and values break down, leaving individuals without clear moral guidelines, resulting in social instability, alienation, and deviant behaviour; coined by Émile Durkheim to describe the condition of societies undergoing rapid change

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

Rapid urbanisation in India has produced conditions of anomie among rural migrants — severed from caste-based community networks and village norms but not yet integrated into the impersonal, formal-rule-governed life of the city.

Synonyms

normlessnesssocial disintegrationmoral vacuumrootlessnesssocial drift

Antonyms

social cohesionnormative orderintegrationsolidarity

🌱 Word Family

anomie (n), anomic (adj), anomy (variant n)

🔡 Root

Greek anomia = lawlessness (a- = without + nomos = law/custom/norm)

📜 Etymology

The concept was developed by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in The Division of Labour in Society (1893) and Suicide (1897); Durkheim identified anomie as a pathology of modern industrial societies where traditional norms erode faster than new ones form; Robert Merton later adapted it to explain deviance in American society

🧠 Memory Hook

A + NOMIE = A-NOMY: WITHOUT (a) NORMS (nomos) — a society without rules, where nobody knows what the norms are

👥 Society 📖 Seen in: Salient Features of Indian Society — D...

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