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On the Social Costs of Modernization. Social Disintegration, Atomie/Anomie and SocialDevelopment
Author(s) -
Galtung Johan
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1996.tb00596.x
Subject(s) - anomie , modernization theory , pessimism , action (physics) , sociology , language change , isolation (microbiology) , positive economics , political science , epistemology , law , economics , philosophy , linguistics , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , quantum mechanics , biology
This essay presents a provocative and pessimistic picture of the human condition at the end of the twentieth century. Many societies are seen to be caught up in a process of destructuration and deculturation, heading for structurelessness and culturelessness — here defined as ‘atomie’ and ‘anomie’. This is accompanied by a collapse and corruption of institutions, an isolation of individuals and the growing predominance of purely egotistical motivation for action. In the cultural sphere, modernization seems either to have entirely undermined religious belief or encouraged an intolerant fundamentalist backlash. One way to reverse this apparent slide toward anomie might be to draw upon the connecting, unifying force of all tolerant and compassionate religions.