The Sociological Imagination gives the one possessing it the
ability to look beyond his/her local environment and personality to
wider social structures and a relationship between history,
biography and social structure.Understanding and being able to
exercise the sociological imagination helps us understand the
relationship between the individual and society. Mills focuses on
the distinction of personal troubles and public issues. For
example, exercising is not just a personal behavior but is vastly
influenced by society.
The 3 components that form the sociological imagination
are:
HISTORY-How did this society come to be and how it is
changing?
Where does it “fit in” in human history?
What are the essential features of this society?
BIOGRAPHY- What people inhabit a particular society?
What is happening to the people in the society during the
period being considered
SOCIAL STRUCTURE- What is the structure of the society being
considered?
How does this society operate?
How might this society be changing?
Mills used the term "sociological imagination" to explain what
a sociological perspective could give a person who possessed it.
One aspect of it was that an individual could only understand their
own experiences in reference to a larger society. In other words,
he claimed that good social science represented biography and
history, and their "intersections within a society."
Mills argued that micro and macro levels of analysis can be
linked together by the "sociological imagination," which enables
its possessor to understand the large historical sense in terms of
its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety
of individuals.
Individuals can only understand their own experiences fully if
they locate themselves within their period of history. The key
factor is the combination of private troubles with public issues:
the combination of troubles that occur within the individual’s
immediate milieu and relations with other people with matters that
have to do with institutions of an historical society as a
whole.
Mills thought it was possible to create a good society on the
basis of knowledge, and that people of knowledge must take
responsibility for its absence.
Culture is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what
is going on around us. Although there is nothing "natural" about
culture, it is assumed to be so because the material and
nonmaterial aspects of a respective culture are all that we have
usually experienced since birth. As Linton said, "The last thing a
fish would ever notice would be the water." We have a tendency to
use our own standards and ways of doing things as the yardstick by
which all other aspects of society are judged.
The effects of culture are profound and pervasive, touching
almost every aspect of people’s lives. However, most people are
generally unaware of their own culture; culture is so engrained
that it is often taken for granted. People often become more aware
of their own culture when their cultural assumptions are challenged
by exposure to other cultures, particularly those with
fundamentally different beliefs and customs.
Culture involves the learned behaviors and symbols that allow
people to live in groups. The primary means by which humans adapt
to their environments and thats why nobody ever thinks about and
takes it for granted or has a part of life living in a
society.