The Influence Of Sociological Imagination By C. Wright Mills

756 Words4 Pages
In 1959, C. Wright Mills coined the term sociological imagination, or the capacity to think systematically about personal problems. Mills claims that the sociological imagination, “enables us to grasp history and biography and to see the relations between the two within society." This notion allows a person to see the problems that they experience personally as social problems, or those that are shared by others in the same social context. An example of using the sociological imagination would be how your decision to attend a college or university, its financial hardship, and social implications are not only an issue to you specifically but an issue for others in similar social positions and are a result of your social context or social world. More specifically, when using the sociological imagination it becomes evident that my decision to attend the University of Iowa, or college in general, is not a unique issue to me personally and has been significantly affected by my designated social context.…show more content…
For example, the neighborhood where an individual grew up, the family an individual was raised with, that family’s economic and social status, or a person’s level of education is all considered to be a part of that persons social context. Social context can be broken down into two ways of analysis: social interaction and social structure. Social interaction is the norms in which a group or individual interacts with one another or how that group or individual changes their norms when in different social situations or in contact with various social groups. In contrast, social structure is the outside or external forces, such as social intuitions and hierarchies, and how these effect and enforce these

More about The Influence Of Sociological Imagination By C. Wright Mills

Open Document