Lecture 1 The Sociological Imagination 02 28 2014 The Sociological Imagination Way of putting our lives as individuals into broader sociological contents Written by C Wright Mills 1959 The first fruit of this imagination and the first lesson of the social science that embodies is the idea that individuals can understand his own experience and gauges his own fate only by locating himself his period that can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances New Left Social Movement of the 1960 s New wave of student led of social movements that were responsible for all the massive student protests against various institutional changes o Berkeley Undergraduate Social Movement Free Speech movement Mario Savio Proul Hall speech addressing the crowd after his meeting with president because he had been punished for protesting about free speech on campus He as a student and other students were treated in American society as raw materials public universities were there to create workers like factories Faculty were employers regents were CEO s and students were raw materials How do universities play a role in society Sociological imagination is to see how you as an individual are connected to these larger institution and to question them Different from individual perspective but seeing it from a bigger picture and broader perspective Troubles vs Issues Trouble individual biography occur within the character of the individual within the range of his immediate relations with others they have to do with his self and with those limited areas of social life of which is directly and personally aware The individual as a biographical entity and within the scope of his immediate milieu the social setting that is directly open to his personal experience and to some extent his willful activity issues For example o Using sociological imagination to move from personal trouble to an larger Individual status of unemployment to national unemployment trend Individual status or trait of being white man to social race privileges Individual status of homelessness to international comparison of poverty rates Individual status of supporting the war to social issues of international affairs Issues society history have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life They have to do with the organization of many such milieu into the institution on a historical society as a while with the way sin which various milieu overlap and interpenetrate from the larger structure of social and historical life Denaturalization 1 connecting individual lives experiences to larger social historical contexts social trends or social facts 2 explaining those social historical contexts social trends or social facts the why question not natural that issues are due to social changes for example Tarantino s Pulp Fiction characters talking about cultural differences between Europe and America Quarter Pounder vs The Royale Tipping age limits job hours freedom College is it worth it o Only recently that people start to question college i e individuals Steve Jobs Bill Gates Mark Zuckerberg expectations that prove the rule o Research studies show that financially individuals of the majority do benefit from college o Why Substantive or cognitive skills Cultural capital Networks aka social capital Credentials degree as signal Social Institutions A group of social positions connected by social relations performing a social role and reproducing themselves over time Roles connected by stories learning roles over time