Sociological Imagination Essay

Sociological Imagination Essay
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Introduction
Sociology remains one of the unfathomable disciplines that give a perspective on the analysis of society. This element is introduced by C. Wright Mills "The Sociological Imagination". Mills alludes that an individual needs to have a total understanding of his society in order to understand the society. This aspect is what Mills refers to as social imagination or rather described as the quality of the mind to grapple his biography and history and the ties that exist between the two proponents within a society (Duarte, 2009).
It is, therefore, significant to ascertain that the studies in International Relations are closely linked on Social Imaginations that revolved around innovative concepts that involve the society and biography. This paper, therefore, seeks to explore Mills Concept of Social imagination and then determine how the concepts can be applied in an individual’s life.
C. Wright Mill’s Concept on Sociological Imagination
Mills had an objective to reform the society by ensuring that sociology is popularized through the theory of social imagination since this aspect links our personal lives and experiences with the social world at large. Through social imagination, an individual is in a capacity to analyze his/her personal issues through a process that recognizes and links the macro scale environment aspects such as political, economic, and social institutions (Duarte, 2009).
Mills argues that individuals are in a position to therefore have an understanding of their experiences and weigh them on the scale of fate by locating their selves within a given social period, a factor that enables them to determine their chances of becoming aware of particular circumstances within their lives.
Mills school of thought holds that instead of focusing on people’s capacity to cope with certain conditions, it is crucial to look at the wider picture. An example is used to someone experiencing an instance of depression post redundancy (Goode, 2008). It is therefore argued that instead of drawing attention to the person’s failure to cope, the problem could be determined due to the existing social structures within the macro environment such as the political and the economic conditions.
In other words, the concept of social imagination as developed by Mill recognizes the fact that anything that happens in the life of a human being in as much as may have a pure personal touch has a social consequence that reflects the issues that a society may face (Goode, 2008). Human behavior and biography are therefore shaped by the proponents of the society and the society as well is equally shaped by the behavior and biography of its inhabitants.
A sociologist trying to determine the reason why two friends like meeting in coffee dens as an approach to socially interact, it is significant first to learn the history of coffee taking. In this, a sociological imagination enables individuals to have a reflective view of the happenings in the society in order to understand the relationship of a person within his society (Hegeman, 2015). This, therefore, improves the social life of a people by increasing the...