Understanding Society through the Sociological Imagination

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The novel that I chose was The Sociological Imagination written by C. Wright Mills. The book was written in 1959. I chose this book because I thought it would be beneficial for me to develop an understanding of man versus society. I wanted to be able to carry and use the information that I obtained from the book, so I decided to read this because of its close relation to the society we live in. This novel is about the struggles between an individual and their milieu. Mills aims to help us understand that personal issues can be better explained when we use our sociological imaginations. Summary of the book: According to Mills, people will have a better understanding of society and social transformation when we utilize the sociological imagination. By using our sociological imagination it is believed by Mills that we and social scientist will develop an inclusive This is an inclusive theory, in which the sociological imagination is a part of. Mills uses this theory openly: he states the name and follows it with an explanation of the concepts. Mills takes portions of Talcott Parson 's grand theory and translates it into what he perceived it to mean. Another theory that may be used as a basis to analyze this novel is Robert Merton 's strain theory. I believe that some of the aspects of this theory give rise to the concepts in the sociological imagination. To further explain, strain is caused by one 's desire to achieve a specific set of goals with little means to do so. Theses goals or achievements are standardized by society, and failure to achieve is often looked at as a personal failure and not a social issue. The sociological imagination encourages us to connect personal experiences to broader contexts, I.e., public issues and policy. With that being said, failure to achieve a set of goals can be explained when we use our sociological

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