French Sociologist Emile Durkheim, used the term anomie to describe a condition in which social norms lose their hold and established expectations begin to unravel. Put simply, it is what happens when society's rulebook stops making sense to the people expected to follow it.Consider a generation told to study hard, get a degree, find a job and build a secure future.

Only to find that the degree is expensive, the job uncertain and the rent unaffordable.Across Europe, protests over the cost of living, wages, housing and public services are bringing this contradiction into focus. The demonstrations are neither one coordinated movement nor evidence of a continent united by a single grievance.

But they raise a common question:What happens when societies continue to promise upward mobility while making it harder to achieve? The numbers offer a stark starting point.

According to Eurostat data cited by Euronews, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices across the European Union rose 34% between August 2021 and August 2026. Over the same period, the food a gross monthly minimum wage could buy fell by 6% in Malta, 5% in Spain and 4% in France.Inflation slowing does not mean prices return to where they were.

And a job, by itself, does not guarantee that a worker can afford the life that job is supposed to support. This is where the economic story becomes a sociological one.C FOR ‘COST OF LIVING’, C FOR ‘CRISIS’Modern societies rest on an implicit bargain: education should open doors, employment should offer independence, and hard work should improve one's circumstances.

The bargain has never guaranteed equal outcomes. But it depends on people believing that effort offers a credible route to progress.That belief becomes harder to sustain when housing consumes a large share of income, wages struggle to keep pace with essential expenses, and financial independence is pushed further out of reach.The consequences extend beyond household budgets.

Housing unaffordability can delay independence and family formation. Insecure work can make long-term planning difficult.

Education can lose some of its promise when qualifications do not translate into stable employment.Sociologist Robert K. Merton's strain theory helps explain this tension: societies encourage people to pursue recognised goals of success even as access to the means of achieving them remains unequal.The result is not automatically protest.

But when aspiration repeatedly collides with insecurity, frustration can move from the private sphere into public life.France has seen large demonstrations over living costs and public services. Belgium has witnessed student protests over education costs, while demonstrations in Italy have included clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna.

In Portugal, unions and housing-rights groups have demanded better wages, pensions, public services and housing affordability.These demands are about more than prices. They concern who bears the burden of economic insecurity: individuals, employers, markets or the state.ECONOMIC ANXIETY SPILLS OVER TO POLITICAL DISDAINEconomic frustration does not produce one predictable political response.

It can fuel demands for stronger welfare protections and labour rights. It can also be channelled into anti-establishment or exclusionary nationalist politics.When people feel squeezed by housing costs, employment insecurity or pressure on public services, the debate can shift from how resources are distributed to who deserves access to them.

Immigration and national identity can become flashpoints, particularly when political narratives attribute complex structural problems to identifiable groups.But economic hardship cannot and should not automatically be equated with anti-immigrant sentiment. Different movements have different demands, and their political trajectories depend on the organisations and narratives through which grievances are expressed.The distinction matters.

The question is not simply why people are angry, but how that anger is organised. And more importantly whether institutions respond to legitimate concerns or allow frustration to deepen into distrust.Nor should peaceful dissent be conflated with violence.

In France, the president of the Retail and Trade Federation estimated that around 1,500 shops and retailers were damaged, with losses running into several hundred million euros. This is an industry estimate, not an official audited figure.Governments have a responsibility to maintain public order.

But restoring order is not the same as restoring trust. Because enforcement alone cannot make housing affordable or wages go further.THREAT TO INDIA: A DIFFERENT REALITY, A RELEVANT CHALLENGEEurope's experience is not India's forecast.

The two have different economic structures, labour markets, welfare systems and demographic pressures. Yet the question of whether hard work leads to security resonates in both.India's Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2025 put youth unemployment among people aged 15-29 at 9.9%, down from 10.3% in 2024.

Urban youth unemployment stood at 13.6%, compared with 8.3% in rural areas.The decline in the headline rate matters. But unemployment alone cannot capture the full picture.

The survey found that 25% of people aged 15-29 were not in employment, education or training. Only 23.6% of workers were in regular wage or salaried employment, while 56.2% were self-employed and 20.2% were casual labourers.Self-employment is not inherently insecure, nor does salaried work guarantee stability.

Yet these figures underline why the debate must move beyond the number of jobs created to the quality and security of livelihoods.Only 5% of people aged 15-29 had received or were receiving formal vocational or technical training, according to the survey. For a country that sees its young population as a demographic dividend, the challenge is to connect aspiration with skills, productive employment and credible opportunities for advancement.The 2025 estimates should be interpreted cautiously because changes in survey design and sampling methodology limit direct comparability with earlier annual reports.Opportunity is also unevenly distributed by gender.

Female labour force participation stood at 40%, against 79.1% for men. Average monthly earnings among regular salaried workers were 18,353 for women and 24,217 for men.

These figures do not, by themselves, explain the causes of the gaps, but they underline how access to work and its rewards differ across social groups.India's challenge is therefore not identical to Europe's. For many Europeans, the pressure concerns the rising cost of maintaining a standard of living.

In India, it also concerns access to the secure employment and income needed to build one.The common thread is the credibility of opportunity.GOOD OI’ SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY CRUMBLING BENEATH RISING INSECURITIES?Protest is not proof that a society has failed. It can be an expression of democratic participation and a means of bringing neglected grievances into public debate.

But persistent discontent raises questions about whether institutions are responding to the conditions shaping everyday life.Durkheim's concept of anomie offers a way to examine what happens when established expectations lose credibility. The answer cannot always be to tell individuals to work harder, become more resilient or wait longer.For Europe, the question is whether the cost of everyday life is eroding confidence in the bargain between employment and security.

For India, it is whether rising aspirations can be matched by access to stable work, skills and economic independence.Neither outcome is inevitable. But both demand that opportunity be measured not merely by the promise held out to citizens, but by the pathways available to attain it.A society cannot guarantee everyone the same outcome.

It can, however, strive to make progress less dependent on inherited advantage and more accessible through education, employment and public institutions.When hard work stops feeling like a route to progress, the crisis is no longer just about the cost of living. It is about the cost of believing.(Views expressed in the piece are those of the author)- Ends