Sociological Imagination Summary

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C.W. Mills, the author of The Sociological Imagination, discusses the struggles in people’s lives, in the sense that people fear that they cannot overcome obstacles and then they come to a realization that this is actually correct. He believes that people concentrate too much and have such a narrow focus on their “job, family, neighborhood” that they become spectators in their own lives and end up missing out on other aspects and opportunities in their lives only because they did not take a step back and become more aware of what is around them. The “first fruit” of the sociological imagination is embodied by the first lesson of the social science. The “first fruit” is the “idea that the individual can understand her own experience and gauge …show more content…

Not being able to distinguish these two issues can lead to a skewed view in what is of central importance in a society. For example, in today’s society, drunk driving is brought up to discussion a lot and it is seen as an epidemic. The media, especially Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.), describe drunk driving as something that is an uncontrolled widespread dilemma based on the stories and experiences of a not statistically significant group of individuals. The issue does not play a major part in history and does not affect the community of people, and is actually not as big as the people make it seem, yet there is such a large push from the public to support the procedures that limit drunk driving and there is a lot of money invested into the cause. This issue is very important to some individuals but not to a society as a whole. Media is what made it a societal issue. Mills states that the distinction between the two is very important to the sociological imagination, and is even more essential as a feature of work in social science. C.W.

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