read the article to help. https://sites.middlebury.edu/utopias/files/2013/02/The-Promise.pdf.
The Sociological Imagination-C. Wright Mills
In The Sociological Imagination, C Wright Mills described Sociology as the intersection of biography and history and defined the “sociological imagination” as the ability to see the connections between individual experiences (biography) and the larger socio-historical context of those experiences (history).
He asks the reader to understand individual problems as being rooted in broader social or public issues.
He says that many individual problems are rooted in social issues. For example”
1. How do social factors influence layoff rates and personal experiences of individuals?
2. How have social factors shaped causes and rates of divorce?
ASSIGNMENT #1
Read the example posted below. Think about the questions asked.
This essay asks you to exercise your sociological imagination by placing your own life experiences in it’s larger socio-historical context.
How have cultural and historical contexts influenced you or your family’s priorities, the organization of family life and the division of family roles?
Be sure to consider your essay in relation to text and classroom materials and discussion.
The Write-up
Give a good, detailed examination of the relation of individual to larger socio-historical factors to your topic.
The “Thinking Questions” listed below are meant to help organize your thoughts.
Paper: 1-2 pages, typed, Good essays will go beyond vague generalizations. Be sure to use specific references to the course materials and concrete examples from your experiences to support your analysis.
Personal Problems vs. Public Issues
As Annette opened the envelope, she felt her stomach turn. It was a request for her presence to Human Resources. Department. After six years of working hard at a prestigious Bank in New York City, rising to the level of Assistant Vice President and being assured that she would move up in the Bank, she dreaded that her job was over. Sure enough, it was true. All those hopes and dreams were now suddenly gone. She could have anticipated this, since all of the sudden during the last three weeks there was much criticism of her work The security guard was there to escort her to her desk, which she was to clean out and leave immediately. Annette felt like a failure. She was angry with herself, for not having worked even harder , for having wasted so many years expecting to rise up in the bank and it turned out to be a dead-end job.
AS it turned out this was the beginning of the downturn in U.S. Banks in which they were eliminating jobs and then closing. It was difficult to know at the time, but she was simply a victim of a massive closing of banks across the nation and had nothing to do with her personally.
In good times and bad, the power of the sociological perspective lies in making sense of our individual lives. In using the sociological imagination as Mills states, we see that many of our particular problems are not unique to us but are the result of larger social trends. Over fifty years ago Mills pointed to the power of what he called the sociological imagination to help us understand everyday events. As he projected, society and not personal failings is the main cause of social problems. Essentially, the sociological imagination enables us, to step outside our immediate lives, to see ourselves not just as isolate individuals but rather as beings who are largely shaped by the broader context of time and place, history and society. Mills distinguishes between “private troubles” and “public issues” –the former, a problem whose solutions lies within range of the individual, the latter, one that is of societal concern. Mills uses several examples. For example, unemployment: if only one man in a community is unemployed, we question the personal characteristic of that individual; but if 15 million workers in a labor force of 50 million men are jobless, then we must look to society for an explanation. –this is a social problem.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1. How do personal troubles differ from public issues. Explain the difference terms of what happened to Annette in the above story.
2. Living in the United States, why do Americans often blame themselves for the personal problems faced?
3. How can using Mill’s Sociological Imagination give us a better understanding of our daily lives?
4. Using a personal story of yourself or another, use the sociological imagination to illustrate your story.
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