Social Imagination 
Rochelle Serpas
February 22,2015
Sociology 1
Carrie Otto
Sociological Imagination
In the reader article C. Wright Mills entails his thoughts on his theory of Sociological
Imagination. It states “the ability to distinguish between “troubles,” which are immediate to the individual, and “issues,” which are environmental, as they are situated at the institutional level of society”. In personal view of the theory, I would believe that Mills wanted us as individuals of society to not see our personal lives and problems as ourselves only, but to see it in a bigger picture. It seems to me that the Sociological Imagination is to think ourselves as part of society in which all our “personal problems” occur because of society. In our textbook Society: The Basics, it states that if we view our problems in a sociological perspective that we have the say to play the cards in the game of life in which society deals us. On very good example that stuck to me personally was the example of “The sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world”.
We as Americans with the right to be free and do and live as we please, we feel that we have every right to deem what is right and wrong compared to others parts of the world. By using the sociological imagination/perspective we see and critically think about the positive and negatives of all ways of life not just to the standards in which we were raised to know. Another example in the textbook was the box titled “The Sociological Imagination: Turning Personal Problems into
Issues”, it described a real life situation when it came to the concept of globalization. At first an employee gets laid off due to his jobs being carried over seas where foreigners get paid cheaper
to do the same work he did. His initial reaction was anger and only saw his issue within himself, yet with viewing it through Mills’s theory this should make him and his fellow colleagues turn it into a public issue due to the movement of globalization.
February 22,2015
Sociology 1
Carrie Otto
Sociological Imagination
In the reader article C. Wright Mills entails his thoughts on his theory of Sociological
Imagination. It states “the ability to distinguish between “troubles,” which are immediate to the individual, and “issues,” which are environmental, as they are situated at the institutional level of society”. In personal view of the theory, I would believe that Mills wanted us as individuals of society to not see our personal lives and problems as ourselves only, but to see it in a bigger picture. It seems to me that the Sociological Imagination is to think ourselves as part of society in which all our “personal problems” occur because of society. In our textbook Society: The Basics, it states that if we view our problems in a sociological perspective that we have the say to play the cards in the game of life in which society deals us. On very good example that stuck to me personally was the example of “The sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world”.
We as Americans with the right to be free and do and live as we please, we feel that we have every right to deem what is right and wrong compared to others parts of the world. By using the sociological imagination/perspective we see and critically think about the positive and negatives of all ways of life not just to the standards in which we were raised to know. Another example in the textbook was the box titled “The Sociological Imagination: Turning Personal Problems into
Issues”, it described a real life situation when it came to the concept of globalization. At first an employee gets laid off due to his jobs being carried over seas where foreigners get paid cheaper
to do the same work he did. His initial reaction was anger and only saw his issue within himself, yet with viewing it through Mills’s theory this should make him and his fellow colleagues turn it into a public issue due to the movement of globalization.