Sociological Imagination And Social Construction

This essay will discuss the sociological imagination and social construction. It will offer insights of problem families and will look at it from a feminist theory and functionalism theory it will discus oppression and the impact on social institutions and underpin social work practise and the relevance.
Charles Write Mills was an American Sociologist. His most famous was The Sociological Imagination, where mills states that personal troubles should become issues of the public. (mills books) By sharing these personal troubles with society will help a person realise they may not be alone and others maybe going through the same thing for example if a husband with his wife and children loses his job and is struggling to find another one. By

The nuclear contains a male and female that are usually husband and wife and in a sexual relationship. In a lot of societies sexual relationships with other people is forbidden or limited, this will prevent conflict. They live in the same house hold and have one or more children and can include adoptive children. (my sociology book) The Functionalist theory ignores anything bad or what is known as the dark side, this means they ignore domestic violence and child abuse, this is because the theory portrays the nuclear family as a perfect happy family. (sociology in focus) A social worker would need to be involved as it is their job to safeguard venerable adults and children. The social worker maybe able to help the adult move away to get out of the situation or sign post the person who is being violent to the correct place to get help. A child that is being abused would need to safeguard the child and take legal action to remove the child from harm. ( internet on phone) A functionalist view social workers as serving a role, so if a person has been socialised incorrectly then a social worker is doing their role to help them fit back into society. (orange book

Women did not want to be stigmatised and they relied on their partner financially, most of the time they went back to their husband. This was found in a study by Dobash and Dobash. It is believed that society forces a woman to stay in a violent relationship as well as her husband, this is done by making her think that know one cares about her and she will have nowhere to live.
There are criticisms of radical feminist theory, these are; it over stresses domestic violence within family life. It believes that women are powerless and men are powefull. Women also abuse men and this tends to be ignored by the police and society