Social Imagination: A Prisoner Locked In A Prison Cell

Alex Kearney 1/19/2017

Sociology 100 Module Discussion 1

To understand the social imagination, I have considered the idea of a prisoner locked in a prison cell. To further the power of this example, we might consider that this prisoner was born in this cell, and has never stepped foot outside of this cell. This prisoner has no concept of the outside world. The entire universe is irrelevant beyond the walls of this cell.

In the same way, many people are raised in a society with an extraordinarily narrow understanding of other societies. They only see the world through the lens of their experience.

Social imagination is the prisoner’s ability to look beyond the confines of his cell and consider the world beyond. Likewise, in the field of sociology, social imagination is one’s ability to consider cultures and societies different from their own without an enormous bias hindering their consideration. Anyone can merely consider another society, but it takes an individual with a social imagination to consider a society as if they themselves had been raised in that society. What would I think? How would I live? How might I approach this situation

A white college student may be invited to his black friend’s home and hear his black friend flippantly use the word, “nigga”. As a white male, to even type this word brings me great discomfort, as it has been enflamed in vitriolic hatred for centuries. But, to the African American in this example, it is a common word no more strange or offensive than “bro” or “dude”. Upon hearing his friend use this word, the white male may consider the scandalous history of that expression and find his black friend to be immoral. However, if he begins to think with social imagination, he may understand why his friend says that word, and he may reflect on what he himself would be saying if he had grown up as a black