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RQ's on Social Imagination & Methods

RQ's on Social Imagination & Methods

Q Mills: Based on Mills’ description, what do you think the sociological imagination is? What does Mills say is the difference between “issues” and “troubles”? Give an example.Schuman: 1. What characteristics of surveys should give us faith (or not) in their findings? 2. Why are surveys important for collecting social information? What types of information are they especially good at collecting?Adler & Adler: 1. What characteristics of ethnographic research should give us faith (or not) in researchers’ findings?

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The sociological imagination, as described by C. Wright Mills, is the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the larger society. The sociological imagination is the ability to view things from a social perspective, as well as how they interact and impact one another. Social imagination is defined as the use of imaginative thought to explore and answer sociological problems (Mills, 1959). This sociological imagination aims to comprehend individuals by studying the intersection of their personal lives (biography) and their wider social and historical contexts (history). Mills adds that there are many different types of private problems, but some of them also flow into the public sphere, impacting many other individuals (Mills, 1959). In other words, some private problems are the result of structural or large-scale societal factors. Poverty, unemployment, and racism are examples of human problems that are also sociopolitical challenges.