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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

How does social structure produce a strain toward anomie and deviant behaviour? Examine it with reference to Robert K. Merton’s contribution to this field of study.

  • UPSC 2000
  • Sociological Thinkers

Robert K. Merton ("Social Structure and Anomie", 1938; revised in Social Theory and Social Structure, 1957) gave sociology its first structural account of deviance. Deviance arises not from human impulses escaping social control, as Émile Durkheim implied, but from pressures that society itself generates. He called this strain toward anomie.

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What the full answer covers

  • The strain mechanism
  • Examining the claim against evidence
  • Conclusion

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