Sociological Imagination

The term sociological imagination was coined by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 to describe the type of insight offered by the discipline of sociology. The term is used in introductory textbooks in sociology to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life.

Definitions

Sociologists differ in their understanding of the concept, but the range suggests several important commonalities.

C. Wright Mills defined sociological imagination as "the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society."

Sociological Imagination: The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. Someone using the sociological imagination "thinks himself away" from the familiar routines of daily life.

Another way of describing sociological imagination is the understanding that social outcomes are based on what we do. To expand on that definition, it is understanding that some things in society may lead to a certain outcome. The factors mentioned in the definition are things like norms and motives, the social context are like country and time period and the social action is the stuff we do that affects other people. The things we do are shaped by: the situation we are in, the values we have, and the way people around us act. These things are examined to how they all relate to some sort of outcome. Sociological imagination can be considered as a quality of mind that understands the interplay of the individual and society.

Things that shape these outcomes include (but are not limited to): social norms, what people want to gain out of something (their motives for doing something), and the social context in which they live (ex.- country, time period, people with whom they associate). Basically, as an aspect of sociological imagination, what people do is shaped by all these things that result in some sort of outcome.

Sociological imagination is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view. It requires us to "think ourselves away from our daily routines and look at them anew". To acquire knowledge, it is important to break free from the immediacy of personal circumstances and put things into a wider context, rather than following a routine. The actions of people are much more important than the acts themselves.

Mills believed in the power of the sociological imagination to connect "personal troubles to public issues."

There is an urge to know the historical and sociological meaning of the singular individual in society, particularly in the period in which he has his quality and his being. To do this one may use the sociological imagination to better understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner self and external career of a variety of individuals.

Another perspective is that Mills chose sociology because he felt it was a discipline that “...could offer the concepts and skills to expose and respond to social injustice.” He eventually became disappointed with his profession of sociology because he felt it was abandoning its responsibilities, which he criticized in his classic The Sociological Imagination. In some introductory sociology classes, the sociological imagination is brought up, along with Mills and how he characterized the sociological imagination as a critical quality of mind that would help men and women "to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what may be happening within themselves.

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