Class: The Sociological Imagination, Part 1
Document Actions
Class Notes
The Sociological Imagination (preview) was written by C. Wright Mills in 1959. He argues that everyday social life-- our thoughts, actions, feelings, decisions, interactions, and so on-- is the product of a complex interplay between societal forces and personal characteristics. To explain why people are the way they are, we must understand the interpersonal, historical, cultural, organizational, and global environments they inhabit. To understand either individuals or society, we must understand both individuals and society.
To illustrate the ways in which we are a product of our histories, let's compare Professor Collett's history with that of First Year students in 2009.
| Professor Collett | First-Year Students |
|---|---|
| Born in the early 1970s | Born in the late 1980s and early 1990s |
| Came of age during the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War |
Came of age during school shootings and 9/11 |
| Personal Computers | iPhones and Blackberries |
| Cassettes and CDs | MP3s |
| Self-help Books | Anti-depressants |
| Growth of white collar jobs | Deskilling of white collar |
But it isn't just history, but also biography. People are who they are not just because of the time and place in which they were raised, but because they are a certain gender, race, and class, and because of experiences they have throughout their lives. Let's bring in Professor Collett's biography.
| History | Biography |
|---|---|
| Born in the early 1970s | Female |
| Came of age during the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War |
Seattlite |
| Personal Computers | Middle-Class |
| Cassettes and CDs | Parents with only high school diplomas |
| Self-help Books | Worked at McDonald's as a teenager, never thought about going to college, and enrolled in community college when she got bored at McDonald's. |
| Growth of white collar jobs |
Take a minute to think about examples of how your historical context and biographical attributes influence who you are, what you believe, what you aspire to, and so on.
Required Readings:
"Introduction: The Sociological Perspective," Ruane and Cerulo (Second Thoughts, p xviii-xxv)
"The Sociological Imagination," Mills (Sociology Reader, p 3-7)
"The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers," Chambliss (Sociology Reader, p 20-32)
Recommended Readings:
"Taking a New Look at a Familiar World," Chapter 1 in Newman (Sociology, pp. 1-16)
Keywords: conventional wisdom, social patterns, social context, cultural value, self-fulfilling prophecy, sociological imagination, sociology.
