Sociological Imagination

2 Pages 583 Words

C. Wright Mills coined the term sociological imagination in his book The Sociological Imagination. Sociological imagination refers to the relationship between individual troubles and the large social forces that are the driving forces behind them. Mills argued that in order to avoid becoming victims of a large, seemingly distant event, we must learn to understand the relationship between private troubles and social issues. For example if a small group of people in a society were unemployed, then one would ask what it is about them that is keeping them from working. However, when millions of people in a society are unemployed, one must look at what social forces are occurring to cause such an expansive incident. An individual’s life and experiences are shaped by the society in which he or she lives. The life that I know now would be completely different if I was born about 60 years earlier.
I have spent the majority of my life living in a time where the economy of the United States was on an incredible up swing. This is due in large part to the commercialization of the Internet, also known as the “Dot-Com Era.” The stock market was seeing record gains that seemed to have no end. This affected my life because it was a time when it seemed like everyone I knew, including my family, was profiting off the economy. People the ability to spend money to an extent that they would not have normally been able to. Because of this nice things surrounded everyone I knew and me. We were all getting new cars, buying new houses, buying clothes and other things of the sort. Because this society was in great shape, so were all the individuals living in it.
If I had been born about 60 years earlier than my actual birth, I would have not lived through a time of economic prosperity, but rather I would have lived through The Great Depression of the 1930’s. The Great Depression was a time of economic despair. The unemployment rate was rising at a subs...