What is Sociological Imagination?
Acoording to C. Wright Mills an initial stab at defining the sociological imagination by calling it "the first lesson of modern sociology." To understand our experience, Mills asserts, we must locate that experience within the context of our historical time and within our social strata. Whether people believe it or not, Mills writes, people are moved by historical and economic forces. Such forces are the stuff of sociology. Ordinary men and women often are oblivious to these forces in their lives, or they may be but dimly aware of their impact.
The sociological imagination is simply a "quality of mind" that allows one to grasp "history and biography and the relations between the two within society. The sociological imagination enables one to switch from one perspective to another, thereby forming a comprehensive view of the sociocultural system. This quality of mind is characteristic of the best of classical social analysis--it is why we still find much of it so useful in understanding social reality. This quality of mind is also characteristic of the best in social science today.
How can this applied to your over degree and circumstances?
"It is best to begin, I think, by reminding you, the beginning student, that the most admirable thinkers within the scholarly community you have chosen to join do not split their work from their lives. They seem to take both too seriously to allow such dissociation, and they want to use each for the enrichment of the other." Mills said.
