Essay On Sociological Imagination

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Recommended: C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination is a book written by C. Wright Mills. In this book Mills coins the phrase sociological imagination and introduces it as being a way of sociologically examining any behavior humans do on a daily basis or any decision that they make throughout the day. Mills defines the sociological imagination as being a sort of combination between biography and history. By this Mills means that when examining a decision through a sociological imaginative perspective you must combine what historically has happened and how that effects your decision and what is going on in your life and how that effects your other decision. As a sociologist using the sociological imagination you can examine every behavior that any person exhibits. Vicky King is a high level manager at AMERCO and is a big proponent of flexible work schedules, which is why it is so interesting that she does not take advantage of these work-life balance programs offered to people like her with young children who want to be a bigger part of their children’s lives. Vicky’s husband Kevin is a dentist who works slightly less hours than she does and together they have two children an eight-year-old son Kevin Jr. and a four-year-old daughter Janey. Vicky works extremely long hours and her children as a whole don’t see their parents that much, and as a result may be suffering emotionally. The fact that Vicky is such a big proponent of having those working under her using all of the work-life balance programs offered by AMERCO make her choices to work long hours and hire a college student as a nanny seem almost hypocritical. However if you look at her decision from a sociologically imaginative perspective you can understand the choices she makes. Vicky King vi... ... middle of paper ... ...have been and what has historically been at AMERCO. Vicky King is such an interesting case because she wants a lot of her workers to use the work-life balance programs, even though she could take advantage herself, but chooses not to. Perhaps more workers would take advantage of these programs if someone higher up in the company were the first one to start really using these programs. Vicky is not the type of person who can just start using these programs for two main reasons. One she does not want to use these programs, because she enjoys her time at work so much more than her time spent at home. Also Vicky desperately wants to keep the respect of her coworkers, and employees and she does that by working long ten hour days. Vicky King is a great case study of the sociological imagination because she is high up in the company but also has such a busy home life.

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