The Dehumanization of Anomie and Alienation: A Problem in the Ideology of Sociology

tion have confused, obscured, and changed the classical meanings of these concepts. Alienation for Marx and anomie for Durkheim were metaphors for a radical attack on the dominant institutions and values of industrial society. They attacked similar behaviour, but from opposing perspectives. Marx assumed an immanent conception of the relationship between man and society and the value of freedom from constraint; Durkheim, a transcendental conception and the value of moral constraint. Marx was interested in problems of power and change, Durkheim in problems of the maintenance of order. Paradoxically, contemporary definitions accept what was most problematic for these classical theorists-the dominant institutions of society. I raise the question: are contemporary definitions of alienation and anomie actually value-free, or are we witnessing a transformation from radical to conformist definitions and values under