Comparative Anomie Research

Hidden Barriers - Hidden Potential for Social Development

Peter Atteslander, Bettina Gransow, John Western

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351765862
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This title was first published in 2000: This text presents the results of a three-year study in social research, which aimed to measure and explain anomie in different parts of the world with different cultures and different socio-political and economic conditions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied, and the book not only represents the projects in juxtaposition, but also attempts to show how they relate to each other. The project elaborated instruments for practical use of both public and private agents in development co-operation in order to assess the stability or instability of a given society and to orient development policies accordingly. The book aims to provide the basis for an early detection system for anomie. The main interest is intercultural setting, the detection of hidden anomic potential and the close linkages between scientific research and its applicability for development policy and practice in applied anomie research.

Explorative Anomie Studies

Introduction to the Explorative Anomie Studies

BETTINA GRANSOW and JOHN WESTERN

Comparative sociological research has its origins in the work of the “Founding Fathers” of sociology. Indeed for many classical writers, the notion of comparative sociological analysis would have been redundant (Nowak, 1989), sociology was comparative almost by definition. However, in what Nowak (1989, p. 35) describes as the “empiricist” period in the history of sociological research, work in comparative sociology decreased for several decades. It was probably not until the 1960s that interest in comparative work emerged again in any substantial way. Recently Else Oyen (1990, p. 1) has argued that “all the eternal and unsolved problems inherent in sociological research are unfolded when engaging in cross-cultural studies”. She identifies two kinds of forces which have prompted comparative research in recent times; the first are located outside the arena of sociological inquiry, and the second within the field of sociology.

The major external force Oyen suggests is the growing internationalisation and concomitant export and import of social, cultural and economic manifestations across national borders. In addition, we would suggest that the dramatic economic and political changes that have taken place in many regions of the world have also prompted an interest in comparative research. From within the discipline methodological advances associated with opinion research, she argues, have also prompted a renewed interest in comparative studies.

Our research has not been immune to these influences. Our interest in understanding the impact of forces of social change on existing social structures has been an important stimulus for our work, as has the availability of an explanatory concept, anomie, to help in understanding the processes involved. In addition our practical concerns with clarifying the development process and the factors contributing to the successful implementation of development programmes have guided our research.

In this section of the monograph, we describe five studies in which the concept of anomie has been used in helping to understand processes of social change in social structures which have been impacted by both external forces and internal divisions between social groupings. The analysis is comparative, as in the final chapter in particular we try to bring together the common threads that have emerged throughout the case studies.

The first of these case studies focuses on China. A randomly chosen sample of 4,000 urban Chinese were administered a questionnaire which was developed from a theoretical framework concerned with understanding the conditions for and the nature of social instability at the societal level. China has developed a “two track system”: a free market economy in a socialist country. However despite economic development that has met with significant success there are constant clashes within the two track system. Citizens confront the paradoxical combination of socialist dogma and political control on the one hand, with the free market economy on the other, with considerable confusion. Value and norm conflict exists, rising and unrealised expectations, hope mixed with hopelessness and paradoxes which reflect the dynamic changes which are taking place in present day Chinese society and which recommend China as a crucial test area for this anomie project.

The next study is based in Bulgaria. The sudden transition of Bulgaria from a one party government and a centralised, state planned economy to democracy, a market economy and a constitutional state was exactly the type of sudden, sharp and unexpected transition that Durkheim had in mind when he introduced the concept of anomie. In several months in 1989–1990, after nearly 50 years of one party government a new democratic rule, with a multiparty system, division of powers and elections was established. Private property and personal initiatives were liberated. Preparations for privatisation of 100 per cent of economic activity began, but ordinary people were trapped in changes for which they were not prepared. There was a fierce symbolic war between the advocates of the old and the new type of society. The extent to which an anomic situation existed and the extent to which it was controlled by the emergence of forces that had not been visible for some time is the subject of the explorative Bulgarian study.

The Australian study forms part of a larger programme of research, the Asia-Pacific Anomie Research Project, which aims to develop a working model of the way in which accelerating rates of social change conducive to the development of anomic structures impact on quality of life, particularly in urban areas in the Asia-Pacific region. It is argued in the study that three post-modernising forces—globalisation, urbanisation and mass migration—impact on existing social structure resulting in their change at an increasingly rapid rate. The structures which emerge are highly unstable and transient and can be described as anomic in nature. Such structures have implications for the quality of life of the people caught up in them. This model is applied to an examination of South-East Queensland, the most rapidly growing region in Australia.

The forth exploratory anomie study focussed on Western Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. After independence Western African countries experienced two decades of economic growth, however during this period the division between the small “modern” sector and a larger “traditional” sector became more marked with the modern sector clearly more influential. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed the emergence of an economic crisis, and social structures which had withstood the onslaughts of slavery, colonialism and the modernisation drives that accompanied independence began to falter. The transition to an industrial society which started in the late 1950s and early 1960s was in itself a source of anomie, but while growth was continuous anomie did not appear. However, an economic crisis followed by a structural adjustment policy and an opening to the world economy revealed and provoked many processes of anomie. The case study reported in this chapter examines this situation and points to the steps taken in its alleviation.

The final study reported in this section of the book is concerned with a particular South African township. In South Africa, as in other developing countries, the strong marked movement of rural people into urban areas can be observed. Around the predominantly white cities slum like satellite towns have emerged. The great majority of the residents of these towns settled illegally. The perception of deprived living conditions and the rejection of apartheid lead to marked anomie in South African townships. Despite the negative effects of the social situation it is apparent that social anomie at the time had some positive impact in the sense that it contributed to the overthrow of the discredited system of apartheid. The present chapter explores these issues in the township of Khayelitsha, paying particular attention to the two forms of anomie, apathy and aggression, that have emerged under conditions of rapid social change.

The final chapter in this section tries to bring together the common threads that have emerged in the case studies, recognising that while they differed in scope and method, they had all demonstrated the utility of the concept of anomie in helping to understand national patterns of social change.

References

Nowak, S. (1989), ‘Conformative Studies and Social Theory’, in M.L. Kohn (ed.), Cross National Research in Sociology, Sage, Newbury Park, California.

Oyen, E. (1990), ‘The Imperfection of Comparisons’ in E. Oyen (ed.), Comparative Methodology, Sage, Newbury Park, California.

1 Anomie Scales: Measuring Social Instability

HANLIN LI, PETER ATTESLANDER, JUDITH TANUR and QI WANG

Introduction

The China anomie research consisted of the development of a theoretical framework, the design of a questionnaire to operationalise those theoretical concepts, and the administration of the questionnaire to a randomly chosen sample of 4,000 urban Chinese in 1996. The survey administration served a threefold purpose: First, the data were used to develop a measurement scale of social instability; second, the results were used to test the instrument on the sample of the Chinese urban population to see if the empirical relationships between variables were consistent with theoretical expectations; third, the findings were incorporated into a causal model called a “block-ordered system” that graphically illustrates the correspondence between theoretical and empirical constructs.

China has invented what is popularly known as “a socialism with Chinese characteristics” or indeed a “two-track system” to embrace the free-market system in a socialist country. On the socialist track, China has resolved to maintain four principles in its modernisation drive: Marxism, socialism, Communist Party rule, and people’s democratic dictatorship. On the other track, China has allowed the free-market to take over part of its economy by dismantling the people’s communes in the countryside, by giving the green lights to private business, and by privatising some of its state run enterprises in the cities. As a result, economic liberation has spread through the land, and economic development has met with tremendous success.

Despite this economic success, we see in the same time constant clashes within the two-track system. At the core of the clashes is the paradoxical combination of socialist dogma and political control with the free-market economy. We see people confronting this paradox with confusion, disillusion, and disorientation. We see popular discontent, distrust, anomie, and pessimism among the Chinese people in association with their confus...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Explorative Anomie Studies
• Anomie and Development
• Outlook
• List of Editors and Contributors
• Appendix
• Index