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 …show more content…
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
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 …show more content…
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