Summary Of Sociological Imagination By C. Wright Mills

By reading this piece written by C. Wright Mills, one can discover that the sociological imagination has been a part of everyone’s history for a very significant amount of time, although no one may have realized it. Throughout reading the article Mills has written, readers may come across many interesting aspects, but one quote in particular may be especially interesting. “And the number and variety of structural changes increase as the institutions within which we live become more embracing and more intricately connected with one another.” This sentence came after Mills had talked about the difference of personal troubles and public issues. It catches a reader’s attention because Mills described troubles in social science as, “. . .occurring within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others.” He then went on to describe issues as, “.
. having to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life.” He says that our increasing structural changes happen because of institutions becoming more closely related and connected to each other. This can be taken as the closer a society becomes, the closer their personal troubles become. To formulate personal troubles, one’s own personal values and beliefs must be threatened. The more connected a society becomes, the more sharing of personal values comes about. One person’s personal troubles may start to have an affect on his neighbors’ and if the society as a whole starts to experience the same personal troubles, then it can become a public issue that affects everybody. When society begins to have public issues, its structure begins to change due to the need to keep up with and overcome the current