Retreatism vs. Rebellion

I disagree regarding your argument that rebellion cannot be without retreatism, as both are quite different responses to anomie. My interpretation of retreatism would not allow it be a precursor of Merton's rebellion. Simply because in retreatism the individual has no desire to succeed in reaching cultural goals through these institutionalized norms, or abide by them. For instance, this could be someone who decides to live off the grid in order to have 0 contact with society. At most, I can see retreatism being more correlated with a latent function of the rebellion adaptation in essence of the formation of subcultures. A retreatist mentality does not need to happen in order for rebellion to occur as rebellions are more so acts of destruction and violence etc to resist conformity (and also in order to re-define said goals/norms). Lastly, Merton's adaptation theories are put in place in order to define both criminal/non-criminal responses to strain. Thus, a retreatist would not necessarily be committing criminal responses to strain as much as a rebellionist would when responding to strain.

Hi Adriano, thank you for clarifying the differences. I agree with you in saying that retreatism is "a latent function of the rebellion adaption in essence of the formation of subcultures". My first impression from the reading was that retreatism is constituted within rebellion, but I see, now, what you mean in the nuances that exist.