Sociological Imagination
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The word sociological imagination was created by sociologist C. Wright Mills. The sociological imagination is an inability and a value of mind that let one to comprehend and engage her or his life with forces and dynamics that influence it. In using the sociological imagination one cannot jump in to conclusion of judging others about what they do, we must judge ourselves before attempting to judge others and understand people as we understand ourselves. The society plays an impact role in an individual live therefore is important to understand the society in sociological imagination. In sociological imagination we look at personal trouble and public issues because their linked together. Below there are article stories about religion and family problems which will demonstrate on how society affect individuals.
In a wide society, people within the society are affected by the social structures, people in individual do not think the same because of the social structure influencing one`s behaviour and the way of thinking hence individuals cannot all have the same view, results will always differ hence it can be stated that Sociological Imagination make possible for people to view social problems as an entire whole and not only from one`s own perspective view.
An example of a sociological imagination will be an employer always coming late to work because of his/her laziness it is a personal problem but if it is the whole stuff coming late to work it is then seen as a public issue because they will be a certain social force which cause them to be late. Other example can be looking at the reason why black people are populated in rural, using the sociological imagination to evaluate the example one must not evaluate each individual but all the population by looking at employment opportunity, past discrimination campaign against black people.
The article of a family issue I chose is about a mother who killed her four children by poisoning them and committing suicide by hanging herself on a tree, she was discovered by the husband, in the story the husband said “I really do not know what could have happened because we never fought”. (Sowetan, 4 December 2012). reading throughout the story one can notice that the family was in poverty, they lived in a shark, the husband and the wife slept on the bed with the younger child and the rest of the children slept on the floor and the ages of the children don not have a big gap meaning the wife was always getting impregnated, it can also be seen that the couple are not educated this lead to poverty. Using the sociological imagination the wife looked her suffering and thought as her personal problem alone, she could not take the suffering in the society and watching her four children suffering, she lost hope and thought of suicide as the way to solve her problem hence she did not want to leave the children because she may thought the children will continue suffering with the husband when she is dead, so she kills them and herself.