Sociological Imagination
Sociological Imagination
Every human being fills a certain niche. Since all humans exist in a certain state of sociological and economic condition, people have their own roles and connections to society. C. Wright Mills states that “people sense that within their everyday worlds…are bounded by the private orbits in which they live…job, family, neighborhood.” One can infer that Mills is referring to the socioeconomic conditions that bind people to society’s underlying structures, which are, in this case, jobs, family, neighborhood, etc. Consequently, by searching through a person’s history and observing their fundamental socioeconomic conditions, glimpsing their future may be possible. So with this information at our side, what can one say about oneself?
The obvious pillars in society that envelope me are school and family. School is a mini-society by itself. It has social classes, structure, currency (grades), leaders, and followers. School, for the typical teenage male, is both the physical and social location in which they spend the most time and effort. This is caused by their many interactions between their friends and teachers (but mostly their friends) and by the fact that they spend around 6-8 hour in school, which comprises a large portion of their 14-hour day. School is further characterized by smaller groups (general groups such as age/grade), which are divided into even smaller congregations, often called cliques. In every major school, there are the athletes, nerds, drama members, etc. These groups are characterized by their socioeconomic position. School essential components include grades, extracurricular activities, social class, etc., which are individual characteristics that contribute to a larger sociological viewpoint of a clique. Cliques can overlap depending on the same sociological locations as well; I could fit the athlete clique as well as the geek clique.
So what are the meanings and functions of the particular features and
Every human being fills a certain niche. Since all humans exist in a certain state of sociological and economic condition, people have their own roles and connections to society. C. Wright Mills states that “people sense that within their everyday worlds…are bounded by the private orbits in which they live…job, family, neighborhood.” One can infer that Mills is referring to the socioeconomic conditions that bind people to society’s underlying structures, which are, in this case, jobs, family, neighborhood, etc. Consequently, by searching through a person’s history and observing their fundamental socioeconomic conditions, glimpsing their future may be possible. So with this information at our side, what can one say about oneself?
The obvious pillars in society that envelope me are school and family. School is a mini-society by itself. It has social classes, structure, currency (grades), leaders, and followers. School, for the typical teenage male, is both the physical and social location in which they spend the most time and effort. This is caused by their many interactions between their friends and teachers (but mostly their friends) and by the fact that they spend around 6-8 hour in school, which comprises a large portion of their 14-hour day. School is further characterized by smaller groups (general groups such as age/grade), which are divided into even smaller congregations, often called cliques. In every major school, there are the athletes, nerds, drama members, etc. These groups are characterized by their socioeconomic position. School essential components include grades, extracurricular activities, social class, etc., which are individual characteristics that contribute to a larger sociological viewpoint of a clique. Cliques can overlap depending on the same sociological locations as well; I could fit the athlete clique as well as the geek clique.
So what are the meanings and functions of the particular features and
Bibliography: Mills, C. W. "The Sociological Imagination." Oxford University Press, 1959. Web. 18 Sept. 2012.