Sociology Plus
De-Differentiation Definition
De-differentiation is any process in which complex and variegated social arrangements are replaced by simpler, more uniform ones — a reversal of differentiation. The concept is particularly associated with postmodernism.
Differentiation and Its Reversal
Modern societies differ from pre-industrial ones in the degree to which social roles and institutions are divided, or differentiated. Max Weber’s model of bureaucracy, for example, demands an absolute separation between the property of the office and the property of the official. Postmodernists argue either or both of two claims: that modern societies were never as rationally differentiated as social scientists supposed, and that since the 1970s there has been a clear drift away from modernity’s neat divisions, making life more chaotic, ambiguous, and incoherent.
Reception
Like many postmodern claims, de-differentiation has proved more popular with media commentators — struck, for instance, by friends who work from home and thereby blur the family/work and public/private divides — than with social scientists.