Sociological Imagination By C. Wright Mills

Sociological Imagination: The meaning of sociological imagination differs to every sociologist, but at the end of the day, it can be widely connected back to the famous American sociologist, C. Wright Mills, author of The Sociological Imagination book. His work has been listed as the second most important sociological book of the 20th century in 1998.Overall, he defines sociological imagination as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society.” So to further understand the meaning of it, we first have to fully comprehend and accept the unbreakable connection between the social outcomes and how we react to it that gives us the answer to our own sociological imagination. Each person has different reactions of their own outcomes due to the many social contexts that we are exposed to, or social norms and even social actions like the situation we are in or the values we have. With this, each of us might have our own different
Sociological Imagination can best be described as moving away from all social norms and having our own new point of view of the current situation we are in. For example, when we see someone riding a bike, we can perceive that person as someone who is a sports fanatic or just someone who is doing his best to maintain well his health. Each of us has our own different opinions towards it. It is up to us to evaluate the whole situation of it through our own understanding and knowledge towards it. So to me, the meaning of sociological imagination can best be defined as my ability to be able to think outside the box. Instead of following the social norms and being a stereotype, we can look into depth the situation and imagine another new story for it, like having a new theory to it, why it happened and what do you think the new possible outcome might be instead of always sticking to the possible motives we always are expecting. It's the chance to free our mind and look into