Examples Of Sociological Imagination In Sociology

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Sociology Portfolio
PRESTELE RD
19524382
SOCIOLOGY 114
Mr Jacob Du Plessis
Prof. Steven Robins & Handri Walters

Question 1 - The Sociological Imagination

Using the Sociological perspective on everyday live makes one realize that we are not as individually free to make our own choices as we believe we are. For example the case of suicide is believed to be the most private and own decision one can make. But how can one explain then that every year there are the same amounts of suicides in certain areas? We think it is our own decision but society around us shaped us this way. Same with Education, one individual is raised in a first world country and another in the third world. The one raised in the first world is most likely literate and has completed high school and has access to tertiary education. Now he believes it is his choice to go or not to go to University. The very opposite is the case in the third world not everybody is literate and has access to a tertiary education and due to his or hers social surroundings is not able to go to university but still is believed to have the choice to go there. The Sociological perspective makes us realize how extremely society can change our own lives. Sociological Imagination in the way that C Wright Mills explained and understood it was that all personal and private problems were caused by public and political issues, or at least strongly related to each other (Macionis and Plumber, 2012) He saw the relationship