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Sociological Imagination Has Affected My Life

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The Sociological imagination helps us connect our own problems with the problems of society and to our own biographies. We as individuals must find the cause of our problems, and must have the ability to understand the causes of problems in society (Mills 1959). Having a sociological imagination is vital, we must have a way to relate our personal problems to the problems of society as a whole. Without this ability, we do not have the means to relate to how societal issues affect us. (Mills 1959) Social forces are anything in society that can bring about change and influence others. These social forces are created by society without even realizing it. Every action we take in our individual lives is influenced by some social forces. Social forces …show more content…

As an African American woman in her 50’s that is not married, but in an interracial relationship with a white man, has no children, and has a felony on her record. It seems I run the gambit on what social forces shape my life. For this paper, I will speak to the felony and how it impacts every aspect of my life. It appears this felony has follows me around, even though I have complied with what the system asked of me. A felony on one’s record affects everything, employment, housing, and even schooling. When I applied for OSU the application asked if you have ever had a felony, I answered yes. At that point, my application was red flagged and I was sent to student conduct. After jumping through several hoops, I was informed that I could attend but that I could not utilize any of the college housing options, good thing I already had a place to live. When we are dealing with the criminal justice system they inform us that we must become productive members of society. How is this possible? After serving our time whether that be prison, jail or probation, we are still punished for our minor or major crimes or “deviant behavior” …show more content…

So, what is considered deviant is determined not so much by the behaviors themselves or the people that commit them, but by the reaction of others to these behaviors. (Hirschi 1969). In functionalism, the current debate leans towards the approach that is concerned with the way different components of society add to the whole. Deviance is viewed as a key component of a functioning society. Emile Durkheim believes that deviance is functional, he argues that it challenges peoples present views. Moreover, when deviance is punished it reaffirms currently held social norms, which also contribute to society. (Durkheim 1893) Lastly, Conflict Theory states that social and economic factors are the cause of crime and deviance. Unlike functionalist, conflict theorist do not see these factors as positive functions of society, it is seen as inequality in the system, which racial and socioeconomical factors play a part. (Akers1991) While crime is often associated with the poor, crimes committed by the wealthy and powerful remain under punished and costly problem within society. (FBI

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Throughout history, the relation of individuals to society and vice versa has been a puzzling conundrum. Humans generally tend to understand their own experiences and lives through an individualistic outlook in which society is simply a collection of individuals. However, C. Wright Mills and Allan Johnson disagree and relate the significance of a “sociological imagination” in relating one’s experiences to a greater social context. According to Mills, the sociological imagination is “a quality of mind” that allows its possessor to employ information and develop reason in order to establish an understanding and a desire to apprehend the relationship between social and historical structures and one’s biography, which is their experiences and

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Crime and Deviance is an important part of our daily lives. Deviances are described as the recognized violation of cultural norms. Crime is known as the violation of a society formally enacted laws. Both crimes are subjective to a society and things that are considered crime or deviance in one society may not be considered crime or deviance in a different culture. Sociologist have theorized why people will do deviant or criminal acts, three theories that explain why people chose deviance are Becker's labeling theory.

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A: What C. Wright Mills meant by the “sociological imagination” was the ability to perceive situations and circumstances in a wide social context and observe how interactions and actions are influential upon individuals and their situations. “Simply a “quality of mind” that allows one to grasp “history and biography and the relations between the two in society” (Elwell, 3, 1959). The relationship between individual and society is very close. So in sense, society provides economic, cultural and social structures that help the individual carry out their daily duties effectively and achieve his or her objectives and wishes that they cannot have achieved alone.

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The sociological imagination has three areas that are analyzed. First it can start out as an individual’s personal issue, that personal issue develops into a larger scale problem that affects both a society and then it impacts history. For example, look at how unemployment can impact society as a whole. Being from Michigan, the main industry has been automobile manufacturing on the east side of the state. When I was getting ready to graduate from college several automobile manufacturing plants were closing or downsizing.

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There are several weaknesses in C. Wright Mills' argument on the importance of the sociological imagination in sociology. One of the main weaknesses is that it can be difficult for individuals to develop a sociological imagination, especially those who have not been exposed to sociological concepts and ideas. It requires an individual to have a certain level of education and understanding of the society they live in. Another weakness is that Mills' argument on the importance of the sociological imagination can be seen as overly optimistic, as it suggests that by developing the sociological imagination, individuals can easily understand and change societal issues.

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The sociological imagination is a prominent concept that is used by sociologists as well as people that make an attempt to create a stronger connection to their societies. The concept was coined by world renowned sociologist, C. Wright Mills. The sociological imagination is essentially how we as individuals connect our personal lives, issues, and experiences to external forces in our society that mold our experiences (C. Wright Mills). For example, since I am a first generation American, there are resources and opportunities that have been enacted to support me through my education, such as scholarships. Along with my personal experiences, the community that I was able to grow up in has nurtured me along my journey to college.

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The sociological imagination helps us understand how social arrangements influence people’s behavior. Often people can’t distinguish “between personal troubles of milieu and public issues” (mills 2014, 4) and that is greatly affected by their social environment. This leads us to ask why people do certain things. In The Promise, Mills states that neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both (Mills 2014, 1).

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According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is how our external influences become part of our thinking and motivation. The ability to grasp history and biography, meaning location and orientation to life, is sociological imagination. The main focus is how groups influence people, predominately how society influences the decisions of people. Sociological imagination, or sociological perspective, can be used to understand many different aspects of society, from unemployment and homelessness to marriage and divorce rate. This concept can also be applied to understand the less obvious aspects of our society, such as teenage pregnancy.

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The term “sociological imagination” was coined by American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959. It is defined as the “vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society,” enabling one to “grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society” (Mills, 1995:6). The concept allows an individual to see the impact of historical and social forces on his/her life, demonstrating the relationship between an individual and the wider society in which they live (Mustapha, 2013). To obtain knowledge and understanding, it is important to break free from our immediate circumstances and put things into a wider context, rather than using an individualistic perspective to look at the occurrence of events,

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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

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