Mani Kallupurackal. Midterm Sociology Essay. When I Was

A person has always been able to choose to what extent their cultural experiences affect their perspective. Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds,” Bharati Mukherjee’s, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” and Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” all show how the main characters have chosen to let their experiences have an effect on their cultural identity. A person’s cultural experiences shape perception based on their own identifications and they may chose to assimilate to different cultures.

Sociological imagination is the “quality of mind” (Mills, 1959: p. 4) that enables us to look outside our everyday life and see the entire society as we were an outsider with the benefit of acknowledge of human and social behaviour. It allows us to see how society shapes and influences our life experiences. Is the ability to see the general in the particular and to “defamiliarise the familiar” (Bauman 1990: p. 15). According to C. Wright Mills, it “enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals” (Mills, 1959: p. 5). These

The sociological imagination as described by C. Wright Mills is “the ability to understand the intersection between biography and history or interplay of self and the world.” (13) Mills also describes the sociological imagination by saying, “we have come to know every individual lives, from one generation to the next, in some society; that he lives out a biography, and that he lives out within some historical sequence. By the fact of his living he contributes, however minutely, to the shaping of this society and to the course of its history, even as he is made by society and by its historical push and shove.” (1) In saying this statement, Mills leads us into what he calls the history and the biography of sociological imagination. Mills describes history has being part of the individual and biography being part of society. In an excerpt from his book, The Sociological Imagination, he talks about how troubles are our history. Mills states, “troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with other; they have to do with self ad with those limited areas of social life of which he is directly and personally aware.” Mills says this about biography, “Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life.” (2)

Mills said in his essay, “the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between ‘the personal troubles of milieu’ and ‘the public issues of social structure’” (1959, 4).

In sixteen years of life, I have received an opportunity to experience different cultures, learning styles, and languages. To start of, I am an American since I was born here, but the reality is that I was raised in India. My parents’ main motivation for moving back to India was because they wanted us to embrace our traditions, and most importantly, value our family relationships. We relocated back to the US at the start of 9th grade. This transition was a huge factor for transforming me as a person. I am cognizant of the two systems, cherish both, and realize that these multicultural experiences have encouraged me to grow and mature beyond my years. Relocating from a place is not as easy as one can imagine. When compared to the US, India

If Sociology is the systematic study of human society, then sociological imagination is what we perceive or think about how people work and or think in a more personal and bias matter. C.W. Mills believes that merging two different theories of social reality of the “individual” and “society”. Mills challenges readers and learners by arguing many basic terms and definitions from what “we” believe are right. Chapters one and two talks about how society portrays what we know rather then the facts. Our bias opinions and beliefs often go against what science has proven.

Sociological imagination is merely the connection between a person and the society. Every person is connected to and influenced by society to a different extent. Some people are completely absorbed in society and feel obligated to keep up with the trends, or else they feel like an outlier. On the other hand, some people do not keep up with the trends of society because they could care less about others opinions. Sociological imagination can be used to show the relationship between both those types of people and the society, and it can be used to explain how people view society from their point of view. When people look at societies from an outsider’s point of view, “rather than only from the perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases” (Schaefer 4), they are able to notice the things that shape and mold their character. The outsider perspective also provides them with a better understanding of themselves by understanding the relationship between them and society.

C. Wright Mills, author of “The Sociological Imagination”, explains how the sociological imagination plays a part in human development, and how certain social forces affecting the lives of those who are constantly facing hardships. He explains that the problems that we face as human beings involve the history of social factors. In order to understand one’s personal biography, you would have to be able to know how social history affects your life. By him saying that “The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. That is its task and its promise” (Mills, 1959: 15), he means that the history that we experienced has an impact on our everyday lives. The correlation between history and biography can help us understand why we experience the things that we experience. Mills goes on to explain that our personal problems are, instead, wider public issues that have been

The field of sociology is an old but ever changing study that originated around the time of the Industrial Revolution (Furze et al. 2015, p. 2); this revolution evoked a series of new and serious social troubles that attracted the attention of many social thinkers. Such social thinkers included the American sociologist C. Wright Mills. In his famous work, The Sociological Imagination, Mills (1978) discusses the relationship between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’ by highlighting the connection between the aspects of private troubles and social structures. From the works of sociologists such as Mills; sociology was shaped into the diverse field as we presently know it. Essentially in descriptive terms, sociology is the “systematic study

Sociological imagination is a concept that was defined in 1959 by American sociologist C. Wright Mills. He described it as an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choice and perceptions. It helps us relate our own experiences to others. Sociological imagination can help us understand the difference between personal troubles and public issues by determining if it is a problem in someone’s own history or if it is an issue in the society or culture’s history.

In this paper, I will be applying the concept of the sociological imagination to reflect on my life so far as a racialized female in society. I will discuss the impacts of social class, gender, race/ethnicity, and socialization in the settings of the Canadian, Indian, and Indonesian society as necessary. Being a third-culture individual has influenced certain areas of my life greatly, and accordingly, I’d like to analyze my own experiences through a sociological lens. The main purpose of this paper is to share how social contexts, especially socialization, has impacted me.

Indian-Americans ranging from ages 16-24 that are first generation Americans undergo the stages of minority identity development. They are commonly placed in environments which force them to question their own identity. As they communicate with peers, they question themselves and their personal beliefs and customs. Occasionally, they view the majority culture as better than their own and may develop negative feelings of their Indian household upbringing. One may feel the need to internalize the values of the dominant culture of the community and change to fit the status quo. This is especially difficult for Indian-Americans because so many things that they are taught within the home are not normal for the majority culture therefore presenting a major division and causing an uproar in the home. Parents tend to view “normal” majority culture attributes as

The sociological imagination is the “quality of mind” (Mills, 1959: 4) that enables individuals to look outside their private sphere of consciousness and identify the structures and institutions in society that influence or cause their personal experiences. In this way, by looking at the bigger picture, they can understand their place in society and explain their circumstance in terms of societal influence.

The “Sociological Imagination” was introduced by C. Wright Mills in 1959. C. Wright Mills explains in the article “The Promise” the concept of the sociological imagination. The Sociological Imagination is the way of thinking focused on seeing the impact of social forces or social contact in our individual lives. The intent of the sociological imagination is to see the bigger picture within which individuals live their lives; to recognize personal troubles and public issues as two aspects of a single process. It also challenges the individualistic reasoning, for example, the talent, skill, hard work, and motivation. “The Sociological Imagination enables its possessors to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals” (The Promise, Page 3). It’s a way for a person to look at their life as a result of their interaction with society. It can explain why a life is lived, the way it is lived, and all events, decisions, successes, and failures that have occurred. I believe as part of the sociological imagination social locators are a major part of it. Social locators are categories that you belong to that you have no control over. Some of these social locators can be for example, gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Social locators in a certain sense creates our reality. Our social location determines our access to power, privilege, or our lack of power and privilege. Each group membership confers a certain set of social roles, rules, and power, which heavily influence our identity and how we see the world.

Life is filled with many difficulties, which affect us all in one way or another. As I realize the differences in society I am able to identify my interest of study society in general. According to the sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959), to truly understand people 's behavior we must look outside those individuals and concentrate into the larger social environment in which they live, including personal history. To comprehend the sociological imagination is to understand the principles of personal troubles and public issues and how they relate to each other (Mills, 1959). This concept, is deeper explained by Mills, when he describe our reactions in relation to our cherish values and its influence among different publics (Mills, 2012). He