What Is The Sociological Imagination?

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What is the sociological imagination? What does it mean to think sociologically? Why it is named sociological, not psychological or economic? In this essay I will answer these questions and explain the meaning of that expression using as an example two professional sociological studies as well as my own live experience. Charles Wright Mills, American sociologist who developed the concept of sociological imagination, in his book, titled simply The Sociological Imagination defines it as: ‘The quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world.’ (C. Wright Mills, 1959, p2) In order to think sociologically we need to see ourselves as a part of a whole society and broaden our point of view from the closest milieu to the entire civilization. It requires us to consider it in all its bearings, including the structure of a particular society as a whole as well as its historical background. A man who would like to possess the sociological imagination must have the ability to distinguish between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’ and be able therefore to perceive a difference amongst the problems which are affecting him because of his character and these which are occurring as a consequence of a wider social disturbance. ‘Disability, work and welfare: challenging the social exclusion of disabled people’ an article from ‘Work, employment and society’ written by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer from The University of Leeds perfectly illustrates a possession of the sociological imagination by its authors. It is engaging with barriers which are keeping people with impairment out from the British labour market and from mainstream society as well. The fact that their study begins with examining the history of the British government’s policy towards disabled people from the 1960s to the present times as well as
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