Sociological Imagination: Case Study

Andrea Matus
SOC 100
February 1, 2015

Sociological Imagination: An Intro Mills (1957) states “the sociological imagination is the ability to connect one’s personal experiences at society at large and greater historical forces. Using our sociological imagination allows us to “make the familiar strange” or to question habits or customs that seem “natural” to us.” Mills believes you cannot individuals can’t understand themselves and they also can’t understand society, without understanding society in an individual perspective. No matter what personal problem you have it will always effect the public issues going on and no matter the public issues going on it will always affect your personal problems. For example if a company is going downhill and must cut some loose strings and fire a group of people it is a personal problem for those people who are losing their job, however within the same month the whole company goes out of business, this business just so happens to be the biggest bio hazard company in the state of Arizona and now 300+ people are out of a job raising the unemployment rate to an all-time high, making that small personal problem into a public
issue. From this article I take that understanding the sociological imagination is helpful to bettering your interaction between yourself and society. By this you create your social identity, which is how individuals define themselves in relationships and groups they may be a part of. Mills mentions people who contributed into the social era like Auguste Comte, he founded social physics, and he felt he would better understand society by determining scientific laws of society and human behavior.
Next was Karl Marx and Max Weber who developed the class conflict theory and interpretive sociology. Emile Durkheim developed a theory that division in labor helped create social cohesion and how it is maintained. The Chicago school was also mention and that is the research and development of a theory that states people’s behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical environments. In a nut shell I think Mills is trying to show the comparison between the individuals and society and how society changes and effect the individual and how the individual changes and effects
society. When asked if I’ve had any sociological forces affect me in any way, they would be positive. I am currently trying to eat healthy for the sake of myself. Not because of the way society views the fit and skinny, but because I want to live a prosperous and healthy life. I don’t believe race, gender, or religion has to do anything with my choice in a life change. Like Mills (1959) explains “The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals.” By taking on task of healthy habits I understand the bigger picture at hand rather than the one not seen. I do however think about the smaller picture shown in society, and how society treats people who choose not to do what I do. How society pictures the perfect woman, and it makes me think about if I’m really doing this for me or society.

Wright Mills, C. (1959). The Sociological Imagination: The Promise. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.