Summary of chapter 10 (the Sociologism of Emile Durkheim) of the book Revitalizing the Classics of Tony Simmons 2013. Used for substitude assignment 2a.
The Sociologism of Emile Durkheim
Simmons (2013), Chapter 10
Made by: Tiffany Zegers
, A Summer of Discontent
Summer 2011 - Riots in Vancouver, London and many other cities, started by hockey
fans after Vancouver got defeated by Boston. The hockeyfans did not seem to care about their
identity being public as they even filmed themselves. Two months later - way worse riots in
many English cities after a police officer shot an unarmed Afro-Caribbean man in London.
Observers concluded those were the worst riots since the Blitz in WW II.
In the direct aftermath, everyone was looking for an instant explanation by blaming
groups like anarchists or a feral underclass, and proposing ideas how to prevent such
happenings. In the attempt to make sense of the chaos the whole spectrum from left to right of
political parties were involved.
Leading conservative commentators labeled the riots as pure criminality by
opportunistic looters that stole loads of merchandise from stores, without any political motive,
only hyper-consumerism. They also thought the failure of the penal system to adequately
punish juvenile crime, the high amount of family breakdown and single parent households
(specially in low income groups), and a perceived decline in public morality and traditional
values contributed to the disturbances. Almost everyone insisted on tougher sentences for law
breakers and less leniency for juvenile offenders. To the extent of ‘shoot to kill’.
Liberal and left-wing commentators ascribed the causes of the riots to underlying social
and economic conditions, like government cutbacks ao. That led to economic inequality and
social polarization. Racist police attitudes and practices could be reasons for general distrust
and disrespect of the law. Some say the rot in British society began at the top and has just
worked its way down to the bottom. The liberal/left wing calls for greater income redistribution,
youth employment, more educational opportunities and greater social inclusion, while the
conservatives call for stronger law-and-order and return to more traditional family and civic
values. Each side believes that the opposition only addressed symptoms and no underlying
causes, while they both did.
The question of what causes social unrest and political upheaval is an old question, and
one that Emile Durkheim took seriously. He would have labeled such riots as a pathological
social condition called “anomie”.
Anomie (for Durkheim) was a state in which individuals no longer feel any real
Made by: Tiffany Zegers
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