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2: The Sociological Imagination

  • Page ID
    231725

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    C Wright Mills image.jpg

    In this module we will explore the work of C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) and his important and lasting contribution to the field of sociology. Mills was an American sociologist best known for his concept, the "sociological imagination," which describes a vision or a lens through which we can see the connection between the problems of individuals to that of broader society. You will engage with this idea by doing a classroom activity in which you will analyze different social issues using the Sociological Imagination. Finally you will complete an assignment in which you will watch a video that uses the Sociological Imagination to analyze coffee and then do your own analysis of an object.

    Mills argues that we should understand personal issues in the context of the broader social world. He famously said, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” Personal problems like unemployment, eating disorders or alcoholism can be understood my looking at larger social forces such as the economic system, war and beauty culture. Mills’ book, The Power Elite (1956), examined the concentration of power in the hands of a few elites in the military, corporate, and political spheres. His work continues to influence sociological thought and activism. Mills believed that American society suffered from the fundamental problems of alienation, moral insensibility, threats to democracy, threats to human freedom, and conflict between bureaucratic rationality and human reason, and that the development of the sociological imagination could counter these. While many of his contemporaries focused on larger social systems, such as the structural functionalists, Mills argued that solely focusing on the macro level ignored the role of the individual. He saw the social and the individual in a dynamic relationship, which asks us to distance ourselves from our personal circumstances and view social issues is a broader context. While there is always agency in structure; seeing both gives us a more complex understanding of human behavior and personal lives.

    C Wright Mills Quote.jpg

    References

    Mills, C. W. (1956). The Power Elite. Oxford University Press.


    This page titled 2: The Sociological Imagination is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by .

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