notes on C.Wright Mills' The Sociological Imagination

“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.”

C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination (1959)

But ordinary people don’t usually think about the connection between
Self Society
individual Group(s)
Private troubles Public issues
Inner life External career
Biography History
Personal troubles Public issues

The connections between Self and Society are hard to make because of:

1. Pace and degree of change
2. Globalization of societies “The history that now affects every [man] is world history”
3. Domination of bits of “information”
4. Development of “false consciousness”

The sociological imagination:

o Requires an awareness of oneself in relation to others in society
o Helps a person to understand history in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals
o Transforms awareness of particular troubles into involvement with public issues
o Represented in the work of great thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber
o Should be possessed by journalists, scholars, artists, scientists, editors and members of the public

Questions arising from a sociological imagination:

(1) What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What are its essential components, and how are they related to one another? How does it differ from other varieties of social order? Within it, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and for its change? Give examples

(2) Where does this society stand in human history? What are the mechanics by which it is changing? What is its place within and its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does any particular feature we are examining affect, and how is it affected by, the historical period in which it moves? And this period-what are its essential features? How does it differ from other periods? What are its characteristic ways of history-making? Give examples

(3) What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? And what varieties are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? What kinds of 'human nature' are revealed in the conduct and character we observe in this society in this period? And what is the meaning for 'human nature' of each and every feature of the society we are examining? Give examples