SOC 302 INTRO TO THE STUDY OF SOCIETY Lecture The Sociological Imagination 09 01 15 I Sociology 1 2 3 4 How an agency group of individuals interact push back structures How structure pushes down on the individual agency Interested in groups and patterns rather than just an individual Interested in empirical date qualitative and quantitative II The Sociologist s Questions Strange in the Familiar 1 What are people doing with each other here 2 What are their relationships to each other 3 4 What are the collective ideas that move men and institutions How are these relationships organized in institutions III The Discipline of Sociology Requires Giving up familiar assumptions Explaining how society influences people by guiding thoughts and actions IV C Wright Mills 1 2 1 A A B C The Promise is the first chapter in C Wright s book The Sociological Imagination He argues that most men and women are unable to comprehend the effect that monumental sociological and cultural changes have on their lives Believed that ordinary people are too caught up in mundane events to possess the quality of mind necessary to understand the history and biography and the relations between the two within society 2 Troubles and Issues C Wright Mills argued that perhaps the most helpful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is that between personal troubles and public issues For him troubles have to do with an individual s character and with those limited areas of social life of which he is directly and personally aware A trouble is thus a private matter values cherished by an individual are felt by him to be threatened In contrast issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the limited range of his life i C Wright Mills examples Unemployment a War b c Metropolis d Marriage What causes a divorce individual factors Affairs Irrevocable differences SOC 302 INTRO TO THE STUDY OF SOCIETY Lecture The Sociological Imagination 09 01 15 Abuse Unhappiness Financial disputes Lack of communication What causes a divorce structural factors Legal context divorce is accessible to women Media Demanding jobs Changes in the ideas of family marriage love Religious decline Economic independence of women 3 Mills Questions A What is the structure of this particular society as a whole B What are its essential components and how are they related to one another C Where does this society stand in human history D What are the mechanics by which it is changing E F What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period G How does this period difference from other periods In what ways are they selected and formed liberated and repressed made sensitive and blunted 4 Sociological Imaginations A B The capacity to shift from one perspective to another It s the capacity to range from the most interpersonal and remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self and to see the relations between the two History and biography and the relations between the two within society i ii Provides tools for understanding how and why we act and think as we do Can help us make informed decisions V Areas of Inquiry 1 2 3 4 Society and Social organization Institutions Face to face interaction Social problems