This is second Lecture in which Students will be introduced why to imagine sociologically and what C.Wright Mills has described about Sociological Imagination along with this contribution of the earlier sociologists in this regard will also be discussed
3. Early Sociological Theorists
Early sociological theorists, like Marx ,
Weber, and Durkheim, were concerned
with the phenomena they believed to be
driving social change in their time.
Naturally, in pursuing answers to these
large questions, they received
intellectual stimulation.
4. C. Wright Mills (a prominent mid-20th
century American sociologist) would later
call the sociological imagination: the ability
to situate personal troubles and life
trajectories within an informed framework
of larger social processes. The term
sociological imagination describes the type
of insight offered by the discipline of
sociology. While scholars have quarreled
over interpretations of the phrase, it is also
sometimes used to emphasize sociology's
relevance in daily life.
C. Wright Mills
5. "What people need... is a quality of mind
that will help them to use information and
to develop reason in order to achieve lucid
summations of what is going on in the
world and of what may be happening within
themselves. The sociological imagination
enables its possessor to understand the
larger historical scene in terms of its
meaning for the inner life and the external
career of a variety of individuals."
6. " Mills believed in the power of the
sociological imagination to connect
"personal troubles to public issues."
7. Another way of defining the sociological
imagination is understanding that the
social outcomes are shaped by social
context, actors, and actions.
