Rebecca Hall
December 9th, 2017
The Sociological Imagination
Sociological Imagination
By C. Wright Mill’s definition, the Sociological Imagination is the vivid awareness of the
relationship between personal experience and the wider society. This practice is held by being able to
think to ourselves away from the routines in our daily lives in order to take a look at our lives with fresh
and critical eyes. The Sociological imagination is all about the “individual” and “society”.
This class has taught me that everything that happens in our society today is what makes it it’s
future. The social groups that gather to create protests and movements all one by one create our future
society one day at a time. Through assignments, writing a few essays, class discussions, and truly trying
to connect Sociology to my current day-to-day life, I have opened my mind to the possibilities that our
society could become.
Sociology doesn’t just focus on our current and existing patterns of society, it also focuses on
how to help us see possibilities of our societal future and what could become if we make it that way.
The sociological imagination can be applied to any behavior, event, or issue such as, drinking
coffee. There are really two sides to drinking coffee the symbolic day-to-day ritual of drinking coffee and
drinking coffee as a drug for the caffeine. People normally say “oh, let’s meet up and have a cup of
coffee” the act of doing this seems more important than actually drinking the coffee. It’s the importance
of the social interaction involved with meeting up for coffee. The other side would be thinking of coffee
as a drug containing caffeine. I know I love my cup of joe early in the morning to give my brain that extra
boost to conquer the day and this is how it is for most coffee lovers. Where we live, people who are
addicted to coffee are not considered drug users where as people who use marijuana are. There are
many ways to look at the act/ social involvement of drinking coffee and how it is pertained to our
current social levels.
Overall, the sociological imagination is essentially thinking out side of the box to understand the
forces of society and the personal stature of an individual. The sociological imagination can be applied to
anything including but not limited to owning a pet, obesity, personal writing, and drinking coffee, job
loss, and unemployment. What ever a person does isn’t just because of the one persons choice or
personal preference there are social forces that apply to the individuals choice as well.