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The purpose and aim of sociological imagination
Sociological perspective in your everyday life
The purpose and aim of sociological imagination
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A sociological imagination is when one can consider everyday life from the perspective of a sociologist. For example, when someone goes to a sporting event, their purpose is to cheer on their favorite team and to have fun. In reality, though, they are participating in collective effervescence. This is when a large group of people, with different backgrounds, come together to all support the same event. A person with a sociological imagination would understand and think about what sporting events are actually representing. This imagination is primarily a way for people to think about the world in a different and exciting way.
The world has modernized considerably since the early 1900s, society is more accepting and understanding. Society still have a lot of room for improvement though, individuals still get judged due to the color of their skin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and economic class. The inequalities among people are very real and exist even though people deny or are ignorant about these inequalities. A sociological imagination can interpret, analyze, and sort out the reasons for these inequalities and
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Sociology can help people to address and alter these inequalities. Using sociological techniques, one can learn how to avoid creating and reinforcing these known inequalities. One technique is simply to not acknowledge the differences in people. Acting ‘normal’ around minority groups will help to erase these inequalities. Learning about the origin of the inequalities and showing others that there is no difference between one group to another will make it extremely easy to ignore the differences. A part of sociology, though, is to get society as a whole to have the same thoughts. Convincing one person that inequalities among people are irrational is one step towards a whole community feeling that way. Unless all these people can gain a sociological imagination, this could be a hard feat to
The purpose of my memoir is to awaken the power of Sociological Imagination in an attempt to analyze my own life experiences through sociological lens in order to understand how my life and opportunities in society have been shaped by race, class and ethnicity.
Manza, Jeff and Michael Sauder. 2009. Inequality and Society: Social Science Perspectives on Social Stratification. New York: Norton.
In 1959, C. Wright Mills released a book entitled ‘The sociological’. Imagination’. It was in this book that he laid out a set of guidelines of how to carry out social analysis of the data. But for a layman, what does the term ‘sociological imagination’ mean? actually mean.
This is the foundation of the Sociological Imagination Concept. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is developed when we can place personal problems in a social situation or environment such that they are no longer viewed solely as individual or personal problems, but instead as social problems. That is problems that are shared by enough peop...
This essay asks to discuss some of the ways in which differences and inequalities persist over time, suggesting that they are not static, continuing to be made and remade by the actions of people and society. With Inequality being defined as ‘‘The unequal distribution of valued social resources within society or between societies including money, housing, power, health and education”. whilst Differences is defined as “contrasts between groupings of people such as those based on gender, class, age, sexuality and race, including things people value and the variations between them including their physical, behavioural, attitudes and preferences”. (Blakeley and Staples, 2014 p 25). However, it is noted not all differences will lead to inequalities,
The Sociological Imagination speaks to the understanding of our own actions being a part of a larger historical and social picture. It encourages us to see what influences we have and what influences society has over our own individual lives, whether our decisions are determined by sociological factors and forces or are entirely in our own control. The sociological imagination enables us to see the relationship between history and biography. It helps us to understand the relationship between personal troubles and public issues, and as well as this, it addresses the three profound questions that C. Wright Mills asked. The three videos given, offer a range of successful and unsuccessful insight and explanations about the sociological
A controversial injustice in modern day society is gender inequality. An example of gender inequality is women getting paid less than men of equal value jobs. Out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014. As a result, this is an injustice to women because they put in the same amount of work and some could say effort, but the outcome of the money proportion is significantly different. Another injustice that is plaguing society is racism. For example, in America, as early as preschool black students are punished more frequently, and more harshly, for misbehaving than the other students. The disproportionate punishment of black students is unjust because they are treated worse than other people, therefore it is unequal. I also believe that socioeconomic status is an injustice in modern day society that not many people recognize. For instance, in many societies how status is gained is by whoever has the most money, so the homeless generally get treated poorly. In behalf of the homeless, this is an injustice because they get treated unfairly compared to the rest of society. To conclude, I believe that there are still many injustices occurring in modern day society such as, gender inequality, racism, and socioeconomic status. These injustices are faced by groups of people, but I have faced some of these injustices
In my words, Sociological imagination is a way for a person to look at their life as a result of their interaction with society. It can explain why a life is lived with way it is lived and all events, decisions, successes, and failures that have occurred. In my life I have encountered many situations, problems, opportunities and events. I can use my sociological imagination to examine these and figure out why I am the way I am and also why I have chosen to do certain things
Throughout history people have used marijuana for its dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds to relieve pain, stress, and other medical issues from one’s life. Within the recent years it has become one of the most debated issues in the United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) claimed that marijuana was a “gateway” drug and was a powerful, addicting substance. During the sixties marijuana became a symbol for rebellion against authority so it became very popular by college students and “hippies”. So in 1982, Drug Enforcement Administration increased pressure on drug farms and houses which decreased the use of marijuana. In the past twenty years marijuana has become a
Social inequality is a situation in which you can find differences between individual groups in a society from the perspective of their social groups, social clubs or social status. In some parts of the world, there are different social groups that have the same property rights, voting rights, freedom of expression, health and education. Research shows that inequalities persist ...
Social injustice in our society portrays the segregation of people among different types of groups. Throughout history, humans have been divided into different social classes from lowest to highest. People in the lower class experiences many hardships when it comes to living and are seen as inferior in society.
Sociological Imagination is the ability to understand situations and outcomes by looking at a broad social context in which we observe how we may interact and influence other people and situations. There are certain things within our society that may lead to a certain outcomes, but how we deal with an outcome of situation is based on the situation at hand, personal values, and the initial reaction of people around us.
“However, to develop our sociological vision we must do just that: We must be willing to look at our own society with cool detachment, careful observation, and scientific analysis. We must examine the groups we live in- our family, our neighbours, our classmates, our nation- as if we had just set foot in a new and strange land.” (Goode, 1977, P. 3)
It is evident that inequality (social or economic differences between people or groups, which often leads to unequal opportunity, and treatment) is present all around us, even in modern day Britain. There is a view that because of the inequalities, some social groups suffer more in terms of life chances. This means that these individuals may be limited in their ability to share in the economic and cultural goods of society, such as education, health and employment.
When laid off work the first thing we often ask ourselves is “Was it my fault?”, “What could I have done differently?” We often blame ourselves and believe that maybe there was something different we could have done. That kind of thinking does not show “sociological imagination.” Sociological Imagination allows us to question “things” or issues which are common and familiar to us and to find its deeper meaning, such as unemployment, crime and even drug use. Utilizing “sociological imagination” is a way of thinking, we are able to find reasoning and uncover why many things in society are the way they are. The “sociological imagination” doesn’t attempt to understand the individual and his or her problems alone, but focuses on issues and problems as it affects the greater society, which in turn can affect the individual.