Sociological Imagination Essay

Sociological imagination term has been offered in 1959 by American sociologist C.Wright Mills in order to give a description of the insight, which is offered by sociology. It is mainly based on the tendency in Western societies, which are directed for the observation of the issues which happen to human being as a result of an individual's "characteristics, choices and preferences" (Mills 13). What happens to us and others is "unique" and "private". From the other hand, the economic, social and the political changes have the large scale impact on the individuals. One of the core reasons for that is that the human being is the social being and, consequently, is impacted by the social environment in the major areas of the life. Practical application of this term is the following - to explanation of the relevance and nature of the sociological aspect of human life (Giddens et al 28).

I want to discuss the sociological imagination in the terms of my education, of my self-realization and my self actualization. People (and so do I) usually consider that they are aware about the things, which affect them, the role of particular issues and situations in life etc. In other words, the psychological aspect of socialization seems to be clear for everyone and for me in particular. In some cases such understanding causes the following consequences for me - it seems that I am able to understand the background and the nature of the actions I do. This statement is true to some extent, but there are still some margins of such self-knowledge. One of the score sociological tasks in this case implies evaluation of these boundaries, relevance and understanding the cases when the personal trouble or some personal event is the expression of some public issue.

I would like to refer to the problem of unemployment (which I have faced with) as an evident example for the statement that human being is influenced by the individual and own preference and choice and at the same time, there is a significant impact of the social environment. On an individualistic level, unemployed is considered as the private trouble, and at the same time, in the case of the mass unemployment in the country, it is the public concern (Tischler 14). It is possible to draw the parallel with the education - when the low level of knowledge of a particular student is a private trouble and among the social group- as the national problem.

In the case when there is an intension of thinking more sociologically, it is important to be aware of the large scale social trends - such as globalization process and also to take in account more intimate factors, affecting the human personality.