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Analysis Of Dalton Conley 's ' You May Ask Yourself '

Decent Essays
Dalton Conley’s book, You May Ask Yourself, defines sociological imagination as, “The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces” (Conley 2015, pg. A-11). Sociological Imagination is the idea of being able to step outside of the box, and evaluate society from an alternative point of view. Symbolic Interactionism, norms, socialization, and the idea of understanding yourself vs. understanding the social aspect of society, are some of the key concepts mentioned throughout this paper, to help break apart what the sociological imagination consists of. Society is changing a lot, and change can sometimes make it hard to cope with the world around us. Sociological imagination is a lot deeper than just common sense. Author of The Sociological Imagination, C. Wright Mills states, “ Talking about sociological imagination is what makes us feel more grounded in the face of all these changes” (C. Wright Mills). If I keep an open mind, and pay attention to the larger world around me, I am better to understand the connections of what is going on in my individual life, and what is going on in the social world. The sociological imagination has two lenses to it, the individual lens, and the society lens. The individual lens deals with personal troubles; Individuals comparing themselves to everyone around them. For example, with the media, we see all these commercials, and ads that portray false
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