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Sociological imagination diligence
Social theories related to teenage pregnancy
Sociology imagination
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The sociological imagination is an idea introduced to us by C. Wright Mills. In the book it is described as, “to understand the world around us, and to begin to think in a deep way about how it works and how we might improve it, is to recognize the extent to which our individual lives are strongly shaped by where when and to whom we were born and the range of experiences we have had as a child, as an adolescent, and later an adult”(). C. Wright Mills’ concept of sociological imagination can easily be applied to the problem of teen pregnancy. It can be said that most people are marginally affected by a teen pregnancy. For example, it might not be you who is experiencing it, but it might be your family member, your friend, your friend’s friend.
While introducing the sociology of C. Wright Mills, Frank W. Elwell (2006) explained Mill’s conception of a power elite that dominates modern industrial societies, like America. According to Mills, present day societies host a small and unified group, called the power elite. The power elite holds enormous power because they are in control of the major bureaucratic organizations that currently dominate modern societies (p. 10). Mill’s perspective strongly emphasized the ongoing rationalization process and how this was related to the intensifying bureaucratization process that has shaped social structures and social organization. The processes of rationalization and bureaucratization have deeply affected many societies and Mills argued that these
Social Imagination as coined by Mills is the idea for one to take a look at other social problems through an unbiased lens. This idea to be able to look at problems in the world and not think of them in a way that is familiar, but yet to make them something new. The main idea of Mills is to take an issue and see it from the fabric of the culture that it originates from. By being able to utilize Social Imagination we can then look into cultural problems and analyze them as Sociologists. Being able to look at an issue, and disregarding our own social norms we can then see it for what is actually is. To your average person looking at social problems you’re going to see them through the idea that everyone has the same values, and morale’s that
A lot of us go through personal challenges in our lives, but we often neglect the fact that our “personal” issues could be linked to a bigger social issue. We hardly ever look into the social context of our problem and ask ourselves why certain things happen to us and why we think a certain way. In life we must always try to step outside the box and examine a given situation in the eyes of another.
What is sociological imagination? This isn’t a newly coined term; C. Wright Mills wrote about sociological imagination in 1959. He described it as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society.” What must one do in order to possess a sociological imagination? To have a sociological imagination you must be able to step outside of any situation and explore it from another perspective, rather than seeing things through your own point of view. It’s important to have a sociological imagination for it gives you the opportunity to think outside of the box. If you take a step back, many problems we all face are issues that are related to strongly rooted flaws in our society. Mills starts
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.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute in the United States, illuminates to the world, “ In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15 – 19 years [in the US]” (About Teen Pregnancy). Although the statistic was taken in 2013, the relevance of it, to this day, is monumental. If an individual hears of a teen pregnancy, compared to the past, it would have little to no effect. For example, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathanial Hawthorne in 1850, follows the life of a woman, who happens to be a mother, while she hides herself in shame, withdrawn from society because she has a child. The novel’s views juxtaposed with today’s views on teen pregnancies are substantially different.
Teenagers who become mothers have harsh prospects for the future. Teenagers obtaining abortions are 20% and girls under 15 accounts for 1.2%. They are much more likely to leave of school; receive insufficient prenatal care; rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or en...
Charles Wright Mills writes about the relationship between private troubles and public issues in The Sociological Imagination (1959). Within his writing Mills explains the importance of adopting a sociological perspective when attempting to analyze and understand the word we live in. He called this theory the sociological imagination. The sociological imagination can be used as a lens, to examine everyday mundane activities and how they are connected to the larger structure of our societies. Our current milieu is linked with the biographical and historical contexts of our societies and together they makeup our everyday life. This paper will use a sociological imaginative perspective to analyze why I was bullied for my own body hair as a young
According C.Wright.Mills (1959), sociological imagination enables one to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals. It enables one to take into account how individuals, in the welter of their daily experience, often become falsely conscious of their social positions. It is not only information that they need - in this Age of Fact; information often dominates their attention and overwhelms their capacities to assimilate it. It is not only the skills of reason that they need although their struggles to acquire these often exhaust their limited moral energy. What they need, and what they feel they need, is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what may be happening within them.
It sheds light on the challenges of teen pregnancy to foster empathy and understanding,
“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)
Throughout generations, teen pregnancy has been an alarming social issue that has been a concerning in the American race. Becoming a teen parent brings obstacles such as, lower expectations of graduating high school, not being able to attend college and decrease of success rate in the job industry. Obstacles in raising a child cannot only harm the adolescent childbearing mother but the child as well. Moreover, research has found that children of teens have a worse cognitive and behavioral outcome than older mothers (Teen pregnancy). Studies have found that the reason to these psychological problem is the result of the mother not being economically stable. The absence of a comforting income can cause many teen parents to rely on aid given
Red and blue lights are flashing and the noise of the ambulance impels everyone to a point where they have to look outside and observe the situation, as if a mystical force was compelling them. From what they can see, the paramedic is holding a tiny hand telling her to hold on. As the stretcher rolls by, the onlookers notice a huge lump, or ball as a few may say, under the pallid cotton covers. What they also take note of is that the pregnant woman is not a woman at all, but in fact a teenager. As some are astounded that a child is being born from a child, others possibly will look at it as a “blessing in disguise.” The issue of teenage pregnancy is affecting our society in innumerable ways and has become one of our top social issues of all time. “The latest estimates show that approximately 1 million teens become pregnant every year” (East, Felice, and Associates 1). With this high number of teenage pregnancy, it is no wonder that many authors try to exemplify this common subject matter. Katrina L. Burchett, author of Choices, accurately and effectively depicts teenage pregnancy among female adolescents living with domestic issues.
At the core of C. Wright Mills’ sociological imagination concept is the intention for individuals to understand the external and larger historical scene in his or her period (in time), and thus better grasp both public and private issues as “minute points of the intersection of biography and history within society” (Mills, 1959). The introduction of this notable concept has proved C. Wright Mills to be one of the most influential American sociologists to date, as this has revolutionized the way we perceive and evaluate individuals’ predicaments or, not necessarily always tainted with a hint of negative connotation, circumstance in society and life. In the same spirit, the sociological imagination serves to remind individuals that they are not
Swann, C., Bowe, K., McCormick, G., Kosmin, M. (2003) Teenage pregnancy and parenthood: a review of reviews. London: HAD.