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Theories Of Sociological Imagination

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Sociological Imagination is the use of imaginative thoughts to understand the connections between the forces of society and the personal lives of the individuals. Sociological Imagination is made up of 3 major theories which are the Functionalist Perspective, Conflict Perspective, and the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective. The Functionalist Perspective is a society or group that is relatively stable, which causes people to work together, and all parts of society contribute and has effects on the entire society. Another theory is the Conflict Perspective which is where Conflict theorists assume that the social structure affects human behavior. However, the Conflict Perspective focuses on the conflict, power differences and social change in society. Finally, the last …show more content…

These three perspectives help the understanding of the Sociological Imagination in why people join gangs. So the question is why do people join gangs? Well we will explore this in the Functionalists Perspective first. The Functionalists Perspective is a society or group of integrated parts, that is relatively stable and change is gradual. Also Each part of society contributes to and has an effect on the whole society. A society or group cannot survive unless its

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The author of The Red Convertible Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota in 1954. As the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father, Erdrich explores Native-American themes in her works, with major characters representing both sides of her heritage. In an award-winning series of related novels and short stories, Erdrich has visited and re-visited the North Dakota lands where her ancestors met and mingled, representing Chippewa experience in the Anglo-American literary tradition. In addition to her numerous award-winning novels and short story collections, Erdrich has published three critically acclaimed collections of poetry, Jacklight (1984), Baptism of Desire (1989) and Original Fire: New and Selected Poems

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Finally, the three sociological perspectives can be seen. Functionalist can be observed in the way

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When a woman chooses to keep her baby, it may not be her decision; it may be her moral duty to the society influenced by her family’s pressure and religious belief. However, if she considers the broad social factors that will shape and influence her views, and that will allow her to make individual choices such as whether to keep her baby or not, she is applying what C. Wright Mills’ called the Social Imagination. James Henslin (2013) stated that C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination gives us the ability “to understand how our personal troubles (the problems we experience) are connected to the broader conditions of our society” (p. 2). It allows us to question the “norms” and gives us the ability to see things from different perspectives

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Sociological imagination can be defined as one’s awareness of the impact that society has on their personal life because of the outside conditions and circumstances. The outside world create standards for people, even if they do not know that they are being looked at in this way. Therefore, society influences a person’s behavior and limits their free will. This theory is clearly demonstrated in The Truman Show. The movie helps to deepen my understanding of sociological imagination and helps me to see how the outside world controls my life.

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In sociology, there are three theoretical perspectives; symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory. The major point of symbolic interactionism is to use symbols to help understand how we as a society view the world, and how we communicate with one another. In functional analysis, the major point is to look at society as a whole, constructed of various parts, or groups, that all have their own function. Lastly, conflict theory is the opposite of functional analysis. In this perspective, society is viewed as different groups, each competing for power, or dominance.

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The sociological imagination refers to Mills notion on how social forces can influence an individual. He refers to it as an ability to see situations in a broader social spectrum and see how interactions can influence an individual and situations. It is important in terms of studying society because it is a way to help us see things not how they appear to be on a surface elements but through an alternative perspective. The differences between micro and macrosociology is that micro sociology studies people at an interpersonal way, such as face to face interactions while macro sociology studies people on a much larger scale by looking at the bigger picture. A societal issue that can be studied using both perspectives would be divorce.

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The sociological imagination allows a person to tell apart their personal problems from problems that affect society as a whole, however they can see how the two are connected. In doing this a person can discover that the current social structure and culture that surrounds them can be the root cause of their personal problems. One example is that an individual can see their personal problem of being poor as also the outcome of lack of resources in their community for obtaining higher education. Rather than seeing their problem as only something that affects him, he can see that various elements of his culture and the social structure surrounding him play into his

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Individuals within society are influenced by the socio-economic factors of the society which they inhabit. This essay will discuss Sociological imagination which was first mentioned by author C.W. Mills who wrote a book with the same title. The personal problem that will be discussed is childhood trauma, because it is broad this essay will focus more on depression and how it effects society on a larger scale. Lastly this essay will then show the advantages of using Social Imagination in our everyday life’s and how we can use it to the benefit of society on a wider scale. Social Imagination is the concept of being able to differentiate a personal problem from a problem that is affecting a wider society on a much larger scale.

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Society is shaped by a number of different forces and factors. Inevitably, these forces come together to construct the life of the individual. In this essay, C.W. Mills’ sociological imagination will be discussed. A personal problem,homosexuality, and a social issue, homosexuality, will be highlighted. In concluding the essay, a reflection on the usefulness of the sociological imagination will be offered.

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Introduction There are many different types of cultures in society around the world, all with their own individual accepted ways of behaviour, some cultures might be familiar and others might seem strange to us. Cultures have their own set of norms to control acceptable behaviour. If we as fellow human beings all took the initiative to understand each other’s cultures, it might not seem that strange to us anymore and it is possible that we could help others in a way that is acceptable to the society in which we live in. The aim of this essay is to discuss, using a view based on the sociological imagination, whether a unique personal family issue can be related to an issue in society.

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An example of Sociological Imagination in todays world can be the issue of poverty. Poverty is rapidly growing in the United States day by day. The poverty levels in the last few years have greatly increased. When an issue like this starts to form, Sociological Imagination is a very helpful way to look at the issue to understand it better. One must take the issue of Poverty itself and examine it by putting the issue on two different scales.

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The term gang can be attached to a legion of groups which would include outlaws from back in the nineteenth century in the west of America, a congregation of unruly prison inmates, members of the triads, the mafioso, and other organised criminal entities such as sons of anarchy a know motorcycle gang, and groups of socially displaced inner city youths. Despite its diverse definition, the term gang most of the times denotes the involvement to illegal or disreputable activities. The term gang were mostly facilitated by social scientists they use this term to describe a group of juveniles, this research can be dated back to 1927 with the involvement of Frederic Thrasher's literature titled The Gang: A study of 1313 gangs in Chicago.

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Sociological Imagination The sociological imagination is the ability to look beyond one’s own everyday life as a cause for daily successes and failures and see the entire society in which one lives as potential cause for these things. Many individuals experience one or more social problems personally. For example, many people are poor and unemployed, many are in poor health, and many have family problems. When we hear about these individuals, it is easy to think that their problems are theirs alone, and that they and other individuals with the same problems are entirely to blame for their difficulties. Sociology imagination takes a different approach, as it stresses that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects

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As Americans, we view the Constitution as a stepping stone to making the great country we live in today. Yet, we the people of the United States failed to realize another component in order to form a perfect union. Which is to establish and promote equal opportunities for a quality education for all. However, we live in a society where social locators such as class, gender, and race are huge factors in the determination of one’s educational future.

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However, in our society we need to understand the importance of sociological imagination and how it helps us understand the society as a whole. In our society we have noticed

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