Sociological imagination

Sociological Imagination is a sociological term created by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 describing the process of linking individual experience with social institutions and one's place in history. The sociological imagination enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography." History would be the broad stream of events leading up to any situation in society, while biography would be an individuals own experiences. By combining the two, one gets the foundations of a sturdy sociological imagination. (C. Wright Mills ). When someone connects seemingly impersonal, and remote historical forces to the incidents of an individual’s life that is sociological imagination. Social imagination suggests that people look at their own personal problems as social issues. People then try to connect their own individual experiences with the workings of society. The primary goal of sociological imagination is to help develop the ability to participate in social life, and analyze what is going on in the world around us. Sociological imagination is rather important in today's world. We need it everyday to analyze situations on local and global levels. The majority of people analyze their own life's using sociological imagination and often times don't realize it. The world is ever changing and as a result every "remote historical force" that a person comes across in someway molds the way that person acts toward society. It is more than less a learning process than a way of viewing human nature. Every child that grows up in a different culture than ours will grow up thinking that different customs are acceptable. In contrast to any child born in our culture will grow up thinking that our customs are acceptable. A child raised from birth in one culture will take on the views of that culture and apply them to its every day life. They will find certain things attractive and reasonable because of the culture surrounding them has taught them that is how things are suppose to be. It is in the local area where sociological imagination becomes most critical to social survival. It helps the most at the local level because that is where the person from that area has the most experience in social behaviors. Sociological imagination allows a person in situations to contemplate the sociological factors involved that might or might not impact the outcome of any given problem that they may have. The sociological imagination is becoming more and more important in the modern world. Today the once isolated groups from around the world can now communicate with almost any other social group on the planet. Everyone needs to have diplomatic skills to survive in today's world, which are learned in an individuals culture. By applying social skills learned in some one's local culture they can apply them to other cultures in the world. Sociological imagination helps people to realize how events have shaped their lives as well as other's and helps them apply that knowledge to help with problems abroad.