Sociological Imagination: C. Wright Mills

1) Sociological imagination is described as the ability to situate personal troubles within an informed framework of larger social processes. This means that you are so familiar with your surroundings that we cannot study it objectively. The term was invented by C. Wright Mills, who was a mid-20th century American sociologist. Other people after Mills have described the phrase into terms that non-scholars could understand. They describe it as the understanding that social outcomes are shaped by social context, actors, and social actions. The way that we found out about Sociological imagination is because the founders of sociology (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) were trying to understand the bigger picture that was affecting their personal lives …show more content…
Say there is a fish swimming in the ocean. The fish is surrounded by the water its’ whole life. The water is so familiar that, if it was asked to describe its surroundings or something that is happening, the fish wouldn’t be expected to describe the water as well. Just like we live in a social bubble but since we are so used to our surroundings we cannot easily study it. Social imagination takes the “fish out of the water”. It allows us to take a look at our surroundings and question things that we may have taken for granted. Any behavior can have Sociological imagination applied to it. For instance drinking tea, it can be seen as continuing to be healthy, it could be seen as a tradition where you drink it at a certain time of the day every day, it could be considered a drug because of the caffeine, or it could even be considered a social activity like meeting somewhere to drink tea. Drinking tea can be seen as so much more than just drinking …show more content…
For instance if you are born to a poor family you will not get the best education because your parents cannot afford it where as a child born to a rich family will get a better education because his parents can afford it. Your outcome in life all depends on where you are born and what you do. If a girl is deemed to be stupid she will go the rest of her life thinking she is stupid and won’t learn as well as someone who was told he was brilliant his whole life. Just like if you socialize with “druggies” you will also be considered a druggy by association where as if you hang out with smart and intellectual people you will be seen as someone who is smart and intellectual. Our minds are so quick to judge someone just by what he or she is doing that we don’t look at the bigger picture and see his or her true