QUESTION: What does C. Wright Mills mean when he describes sociology as “the intersection of biography and history”? What is the relationship between personal life and larger social structures? Are personal lives determined by social structures? This paper explores the very intelligent critical thought describing sociology through writing. These actions and words are expounded on C. Wright Mills thoughts.
Vushaj SOC 150-05 September 6, 2013 Writing assignment #1 Sociology is the study of society and social interaction. Sociology takes a broad approach at helping one understand how people interact in different societies. On the contrary, other social sciences look deeper into specific areas of society, rather than society as a whole. Classical sociologists Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, each contributed to the scientific study of sociology. Marx believed that societies grew and changed due to struggles of different social classes.
He was convinced that using scientific principles, sociologists could solve problems such as poverty, crime and war. Emile Durkheim paid a lot of emphasizes on social facts and social integration. Karl Marx devoted his life to analyzing and criticizing the society he observed. He was also interested in how capitalism shaped society. Max Weber, showed that the basic structure of society comes from the political, economic, cultural spheres.
The most basic definition of sociology is that it’s the scientific study of society and of people and their behavior. Getting a little more in depth, it is the study of society and human in groups and how they interact with one another. Sociology like to go or get behind the scenes of what seems to be happening and comes up with a much convincing explanation. Hence sociology deals with the use of scientific method and analysis to observe and measure something objectively. However not every sociological findings is revolutionary.
Sociological Perspectives SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology Professor ______________ Date: Sociological Perspectives In the field of sociology, there are several approaches sociologists consider when studying humankind’s behavior. Sociologists contend that no single theory is correct by itself; rather, they draw on all of them for various purposes. Sociologists view the social world in diverse ways. For example, some see the world as stable and a continuing entity. Those who have this view contend they are impressed with the endurance of social institutions such as family (Schaefer, 2009).
Positivists and functionalists such as Durkheim and Comte view sociology as a science and they argue that sociology can discover all the social problems. This theory believes that the state serves the interest of everyone and policies must be introduced that fit everyone. For that reason they like piecemeal engineering, which is the idea of tackling one social problem at a time. However Marxists criticise this vies as they argue that educational policies are aimed at equalising opportunity but not reducing poverty; therefore this weakens the view given by the functionalists that the state serves the interests of everyone. However functionalist still believe that sociology and social policy now have a strong relationship.
Functionalism relies very much on the scientific method. By relying on the scientific method, the study of sociology can be observed in the same way one would view the physical world. (McClelland) Most of the ideas of functionalism came from Emile Durkheim. He was a French sociologist that wrote the basis for functionalist theory. Durkheim was one of the first sociologists to use the scientific method and statistical techniques in sociological research.
It was a term coined by one of the founding fathers of classical sociology Comte and it involves: “Knowledge that is disciplined, empirical and scientific free from religious or political bias.” On the other hand as society and the early science of sociology evolved a different approach was seen by many to be the way forward. This anti-positivist thinking or interpretist approach believes that society cannot be studied as a science; this methodological anti-positivism proposed the theory of the human in society as an individual and thus research be directed to human cultural norms, values and symbols. The interpretist will take a more subjective approach were as the positivist tries to look at society objectively. Let us now look to compare and contrast positivism with an interpretist approach. Positivists are of the opinion that society can be studied using a scientific approach comparable to the way scientists study the natural world.
Introduction to Sociology SCGL 1001- Official Assessment Task 1 The Sociological Imagination- C Wright Mills Precis Analysis and Exercise Part 1: Summary of the ideas expressed by C Wright Mills C Wright Mill’s book “The Sociological Imagination” is “an incitement to look at sociology with a fresh and clearer vision. [1]” As a classical sociologist, he expresses sociological imagination as a method to allow individuals to think outside familiar routine, see a connection between their problems and social issues and provide a greater awareness of how the values we cherish or feel threatened affect society. Sociological imagination is a method which allows individuals to think outside familiar routine, look from another perspective and “gauge our own fate by locating ourselves within a particular historical period”. [2] As a result, individuals can also grasp history and biography thus leading to three specific questions. Firstly, “individuals can question the structure of their society, its essential components and their relation”[3].
Mills interpreted the Sociological Imagination as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society” (Mills, 1959). However, in order to become aware of the connection between our personal background and the wider society, we as individuals would need to activate our Sociological Imagination and detach ourselves from everyday patterns in order to gain a new perspective. We have come to infer that using ones Sociological Imagination is understanding that factors from society and societies of our past contribute to the way our family, friends, and neighbours may behave. Different societies in various parts of the world differ in forms of government, cuisines, dress and ways of entertainment. These life styles present in dissimilar societies world wide can be explained by looking and studying the conditions, resources and ways of thinking that have been used in the past , which were gradually passed down to future generations, becoming the traditions and customs we see today.