Meaning of Social Disorganization:
Some condition of order and system pervades all forms of physical, biological and social existence. The sociologists have at least accepted a starting point that some order and organisation exist in social life. The very essence of the group, culture pattern, and social personality implies an arrangement of parts into an integrated whole. But side by side social organisation and social order have their concomitants in social disorder.
Social organisation and social disorganisation are two relative terms, because neither there is any society totally organised not only disorganised. There is social disorganisation when the equilibrium of social factors is disrupted. As observed by Ogburn and Nimkoff, “Society is a going concern of an organisation. The organization consists of habits and institutions among which there is a fair degree of equilibrium. This equilibrium is often shaken by social changes. We begin therefore, by considering how the balance achieved in a stationary contract with the condition of changing society”.
Similarly, according to Elliott and Merrill, “Social disorganization occurs when there is a change in the equilibrium of forces, breakdown of social structure, so that former patterns no longer apply and the accepted forms of social control no longer function effectively. The dynamic nature of society involves a constant rearrangement of the constituent element.
Definition of Social Disorganization
(1) Mowerer: “Social disorganization is the process of by which the relationship between members of a group are broken”.
(2) Ogburn and Nimkoff: “Social disorganization imply some break in cultural contact, some disturbance in the equilibrium among the various aspects of the culture pattern”.
(3) Fairies:
(a) “Social disorganization refers to the disruption of the function of some social unit such as group, in institution or
References: Farida Shaheed, “Purdah and Poverty in Pakistan”, in B. Agarwal and H. Afshar, Poverty, Ideology and Women, Macmillian forthcoming. (1988). M