Critical Review: The Sociological Imagination

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Francesca Moore September 19, 2017 SOA 110 P1: The Sociological Imagination Dr. Laura O’Toole Sociological Imagination Critical Review Essay Sociological imagination a concept coined and written by C. Wright Mills defined sociological imagination as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society." Sociological imagination is being able to pull away from a certain situation or being able to “think ourselves away” from our familiar routines in order to look at it with a different perspective or alternative. Mills touches and critiques upon several topics from abstract empiricism, polls, structural issues, etc. Mills critiques “abstracted empiricism” in chapter three. Empiricism means beginning with …show more content…

But those topics are things that I’ve loved since I was a child and I really absorbed a lot of what Mills said or at least I took my own version away from what he said. Let me explain my thoughts, so basically history can not only define the past, but it can dictate the future. For example, 9/11, as the towers fell and lives were taken it was on that day the world changed, how we get on planes today is completely different than how we got on planes before that date. Foreign policy changed, the world changed, everything changed. The thing with history is that most people tend to only remember the tragedies in this world and I will admit for the most part a good portion of what I can tell about history is the tragedies, because they stick with us whether we like it or not, almost as if it’s branded onto you. Mills lays out four main reasons it is important for us to deeply understand history in the name of contemporary society. First, understanding how societies differ from ours in order to form proper questions. Second, history draws our attentions toward structure and can remind us to change for the hope of a better future. Third, comparative studies can be made to help us better understand what we are studying. Fourth, history reminds us

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