THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION The article "The Sociological Imagination" by C. Wright Mills to my understanding is about the structure of society.

The main ideas he was trying to convey was of how the individuals of a society affects a society as a whole. The example that Mills states about the unemployment rate in my understanding has held true. It seems that although there were many job cuts in previous years, the quantity was not as great as it is now. In previous years the lay offs only affected a small amount of people which meant as a whole it didn't really affect society. Now with the increasing number of lost jobs, these combined individuals who are no longer working class have a combined greater affect on society. Although the individual may not directly affect society, society can directly affect an individual. I have seen many examples of this statement that Wright has pointed out. Such incidents I have seen where society affects an individual is when a person's surroundings change. I have seen people act professionally while they are at work with proper clothing attire and when at home they dress casually and let their personalities out. This to me demonstrates how society's standard on work ethic affects an individual directly. I have personally experienced the affects of society when I have to go to school and change the way I speak and act to fit the standards. The significance of the article is to have an understanding of the relationships between society and an individual. Since an individual doesn't usually affect society, but society affects an individual it shows that the main societal behavior can cause complete changes in people's lives and cultures. In British Literature I read a story concerning the black plague and it explained how the common rate of deaths cause everyone to become cold towards the sick. The reason was because in the eye of society people who had the disease were in a state of hopelessness and were ostracized. Personally these factors will affect my future choices. Everything from the demand of certain careers to the different costs of living will affect my future job and household. Contradictory to the idea having our own free will to choose what we please, Mills explains that it is not technically the reality. Most teens have to face their options for the future and don't realize the problems that have already been created for them by society. This is what forces me and many other teens into standards of living that causes us to look into small groups for guidance. The ultimate relevance to sociology this article has is that there are many connections between past societies and present ones and understanding them can help us to shape it or our individual surroundings for the benefit of society as a whole. CHAPTER REVIEW Chapter 1, The Promise In this Chapter Mills demonstrates how we as our society does not realize there is a hierarchy to our problems where there is an underlining cause for our problems which causes us to feel trapped and helpless. The three concepts I am going to relate this chapter to include Alienation, Values and the Sociological perspective. Alienation is defined as the experience of isolating and misery resulting from powerlessness. Mills explains that nowadays people isolate themselves from each other and problems which are being caused by society (the power elite) are causing us to feel powerlessness. He demonstrates society becoming alienated and divided us with the sense of helplessness of problems going on around us without ourselves realizing the problems lies within society rather than us but as a result causes people to alienate themselves from society Values is defined as culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable,good and beautiful and serves as a broad guidelines for social living. Mills demonstrates values throughout this chapter as he demonstrates peoples values have changed and we as a society need to understand that we should lead our life rather than letting society lead it for us. He goes on to show that we as a society can never experience freedom if we accept the structural values that are placed in society using the example that the values that were threatened after world war two were never questioned and people just thought about what was going on in society as norms rather than questioning them. The Sociological perspective is defined as .the special point of view of sociology that sees general patterns of society in the lifes of particular people. Mills showed this clearly demonstrated this as he showed how personal troubles such as the loss of a job can be turned into public issues. Mills showed this explaining if one person lost a job it is a personal issue but if 10,000 people all lost their jobs that issue will be turned into an public issue. Another example he used was a marriage showing the sociological perspective. In a similar situation to the loss of a job example if one couple got a divorce it is classed as a personal issue but if a quarter of marriages ended in divorce society will need to view this as structural issue where the problems arise from above us from the institutions. It all links in with the idea that we blame ourselves for problems in our lives rather than trying to think outside the box and realize the problems arise from society as a whole not just the individual.

Chapter 2, Grand Theory In this chapter Mills criticizes Parsons ideas on the Grand theory which he believed was rarely based in reality. Mills spends this chapter criticizing Parsons ideas and shows this by quoting parts of his book and then translating them into a single paragraph. In Mills words his plan for the Grand Theory is to help grand theorists get down from their useless heights. The three sociological ideas I am going to use to relate to this chapter are Social structure, Social system and Social order . Social structure is defined as any relative stable pattern of social behavior. In this chapter Mills uses social structure throughout due to his idea that we need to analyze our personal issues in terms of the social structures of our society. He believed if we could connect our immediate selfs to those larger contexts we would have the power to understand how our experiences make sense and what to do about the personal problems we encounter. Mills demonstrates Durkheims theory of anomie by demonstrating if the social structure break down it causes people not to care about one another unless it directly effects them in some way. The social system is defined as what the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships. In this chapter Mills focuses on the book called the social system written by Parsons and again criticizes his ideas. Mills believed the social system was built from small groups in society rather than Parsons ideas of the social system being built from society as a whole. Mills explains this clearly by making you picture an army or factory and showing how these are both institutions but everyones roles are different in this institution. Social order is defined as a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce the norms of society. Mills shows in this chapter his disagreement with Parsons ideas of social order especially the idea Parsons came up with that social order can be seen as a whole. Mills agues in this chapter that with all the different cultures it is impossible to put everyone into one category when defining social order and the domination of trying to do this could be another form of social stratification. This is shown clearly if you try and imagine a range of different people from different cultures living together and trying to maintain the same norms of society when they have grown up in a society with totally different norms from each other. Chapter 3, Abstracted Empiricism In this chapter Mills criticizes the empirical methods of social research. Mills carries of criticizing the Abstracted Empiricism due to them neglecting the wider social and historical contexts in their sociological inquiries. Mills shows throughout the chapter that the Abstracted Empiricism approach is faulty due to it collecting data from selected groups and then causing the individual behavior to be ripped out of its social context due to the generalizations it makes. He then criticizes this showing the results they get is historical and non comparative. He believes the separation of the research from theory is caused due to the individualization of human behavior being taken away from social subject matter. The three sociological ideas I am going to relate to this chapter include Theory, Positivism and Empirical evidence. Theory is defined as a statement of how and why specific facts are related. Mills shows throughout the chapter his disagreement of quantitative research techniques. Mills shows that the theorys used (abstracted empiricism) are not based upon any new conception of the nature of society or facts relating to them. Mills states his argument with abstracted empiricism by concluding that social research is advanced by ideas and disciplined by fact so the thought of having the theory of statistical analysis for data would not be sufficient for sociological analysis. Positivism is defined as a scientific approach to knowledge based on positive facts as opposed to mere speculation. Mills demonstrates the importance of positivism in this chapter and shows how empiricism is not the best and most scientific method from a sociologists point of view to gather data. He shows although this method provides positivism it is not the most accurate way of comparing data due to no conception of social structure is taking into account and does not take the nature of society into account. Mills shows that empiricism causes the positivism to become too restricted due the limited amount of theory and data it contains. Mills feels that the use of empiricism as their primary source of data for research will eventually result in an increase in individualization and the main objective which is to research the human behavior will be taking away from the subject matter. Empirical evidence is defined as information we can see with our senses. Mills argued throughout this chapter this is not the best method for a sociologist to use due to it missing out the concept of social structure which is very important in determining a persons behavior. Mill also shows if a person is taken out of their social context the results will be inaccurate. Empirical

evidence is limited as Mills points out due to having generalizations being made from specific data collected but due to the data being collected while the human is outside their natural environment it becomes an inaccurate assessment. Chapter 4, Types of Practicality In this chapter Mills criticizes sociologists tendency to abandon moral responsibility when they are discussing problems such as business and government issues without considering their own morals from the view of a representative of an intellectual craft. The three sociological ideas I am going to relate to this chapter include Morality, Sociologists and Values. Morality is defined as concern with the distinction between right and wrong. Mills criticizes the lack of morality sociologists have when addressing business matters and shows that morality can differ from person to person. This Mills explains when defining that a problem to one person does not necessarily mean a problem to another. Mills shows in this chapter it is natural for sociologists to adopt a moral position due to their values being involved in all aspects of their sociological work. Sociologists are defined as the study people and the behavior within the social groups that they form. Mills criticizes other sociologists because of their tendency to abandon their moral responsibilities when researching sociological problems. Mills shows values are involved in all aspects of a sociologists work which is why it is impossible for sociologists to avoid adopting moral positions. Values are defined as culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Mills shows due to the sociologists values it causes the sociologists ideas to be affected. This in turn affects their own morals when researching larger sociological problems that affect our culture such as problems with the government. Mills also demonstrated his disagreement with other sociologists giving up their values and responsibilities while engaging in contract research to address the problems of business within a society. Chapter 5, The Bureaucratic Ethos In this chapter Mills shows his vision of solving many pressing social, environmental, and economic problems by using his scientific method while analyzing rising bureaucratic barriers. Mills criticizes the limited ideas of the administrative nature when large scale research is being used and their tendency to lose touch with the larger issues. Mills shows his concern in using Abstracted Empiricism due to the costly, efficient, highly standardized and rationalized methodologies resembled those of accounting and advertising firms of corporations he believes causes social problems to become overshadowed. The three sociological ideas I am going to use to relate to this chapter include Social Change, Role and Bureaucracy. Social Change is defined as the transformation of culture and social institutions over time. Mills showed society shifted in a way to suit large corporations and government institutions. Mills showed as a result of these social changes in the 1950s it caused for less focus on examining social problems and making them more like accounting or advertising firms. Mills showed due to social change social scientists are becoming more like scientists and less like sociologists due to the sociologists looking for the quick easy answer rather than thinking more freely. This social change has lead to sociologists to become slaves to the government. A Role is defined as the behavior expected by someone who holds a particular status. Mills shows how in the 1950s sociologists took on a different role unintentionally by using Abstracted Empiricism research methods which Mills concludes changed their role more into scientists as opposed to sociologists. Mills shows ideas which sociologists should use which is digging to foundations of problems are being replaced with Abstracted Empiricism research methods showing the ideas they come up with which are more scientific than sociological is causing a shift in roles on the sociologist part when comparing research methods. Mills shows will the new roles the sociologists took on in the 1950s which due to the change in research methods caused a large increase in studying of the individual rather than the group. Bureaucracy is defined as an organization model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently. Mills shows how Bureaucracy has caused society to lose touch with the larger scale. Mills believed with new methods of research it mainly focused on benefitting bureaucratic clients like the army, the state and corporations which was done by addressing the particular needs of specific clients rather than the public. Mills believed sociologists becoming trapped by using Abstracted Empiricism as methods of research transforms the sociologist into bureaucracy

operating in a safe environment while finding short term answers as opposed to what a sociologists role is which is to study groups up close with lasting solutions. Chapter 6, Philosophies of Science In this chapter Mills addresses problems of the lack of clearly defined scientific methods for the study of social classes. Mills shows the range of research methods used to address the problem. Mills believed the basic problem and answer requires attention to uneasiness arising from the depth of biography, and to indifference arising from the very structure of an historical society. Mills shows a situation isnt necessarily a problem due to each sociologist having an individual outlook on the situation and they are their own methodologist and own theorist. The three sociological ideas I am going to use to relate to this chapter are Social Science, Popular culture and Research method. Social Science is defined as the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society. Mills here shows how a lot of the problems which have arose is because of the lack of defined methods when trying to define social sciences. Mills shows these problems are only relative to the person as they have their own procedures and rules as well as their own theories on society. Popular culture is defined as cultural patterns that are widespread among a societys population. Mills shows the problems with popular culture throughout the States which was largely due to the increase in Abstracted Empiricism within society which is what sociologists where starting to base their ideas of rather than a clearly defines scientific method of research. Due to popular culture Abstracted Empiricism became increasingly popular especially due to its ease of use which lead to the minimal use of basic sociological means of finding the problems. A research method is defined as a systematic plan for doing research. Mills shows the flaws in sociologists research methods where the sociologists have become more like scientists in their methods of research due to the increase in Abstracted Empiricism coming into play within sociology. Mills shows here a sociologist to solve the problems in sociology needs to focus more on defined social sciences rather than basing research purely on Abstracted Empiricism that will cause generalizations to be made with non comparative research drawn from these conclusions. Due to everyone showing a unique style when coming up with ways to research a subject Mills shows the sociologist needs to have the ability to notice the influences of history and biography combined with their interactions will have with different social structures. Chapter 7,The Human Variety In this chapter Mills goes back to recap his ideas of the first chapter in the promise and how he can achieve them. Mills discusses what his vision of sociology is and explains social science is not about focusing on one pacific aspect of sociology but rather a variety which consists of all the social worlds we live in. Mills goes on to show you cannot look at society as a whole but need to look at the natural environments people were raised in and take that into account when looking at them sociologically. For example when comparing the Indian castes you need to look at the Brahmans from the Harijans together within their natural environment. The three sociological ideas I am going to relate to this chapter includes Cause and Effect, Concept and Culture . Cause and Effect is defined as a relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another. Mills demonstrates cause and effect when he demonstrates how he thinks sociology should be looked at when Mills describes that social science has been shaped by internal developments. He goes on to show social science has been influenced by institutional accidents which show the cause (institutional accidents) and effect (social science development). Concept is defined as a mental construct that represents some aspect of the world in simplified form. Mills main concept which he is trying to get through to us is to tackle social problems you do not need to be a master of sociology but stick within the basic academic boundaries and you can still make positive changes in social science. Mills concept as the title of this chapter says is variety and when studying sociology you cannot leave categories out but look at each category in relation to their own environment Culture is defined as the ways of thinking, acting and the material objects together form a peoples way of life. Mills demonstrated how the culture we have lived in has not changed much in thousands of years. The point Mills is trying to get at is living in a culture that has been going for thousands of years with very little shift in direction the social scientist needs to find a way to seek variety in an ordinary way by looking at the depth in cultures which are shown when you take subcultures into account. Mills shows when looking at the variety of cultures that it is important to not leave any culture or subculture out as they all have an effect on one another in

some way. Mills shows the human variety also includes the variety of humans within a culture which need to be taken into consideration when looking further into social science. Chapter 8, Use of History In this chapter Mills discusses the importance of history for the social scientist. Mills shows without history the sociologist cannot state the kinds of problems that need to be sorted efficiently. In this chapter Mills deals with the problems with biography, history and their intersections within social structure. The three sociological ideas I am going to relate to this chapter includes Beliefs, Society and Popular culture. Beliefs are defined as specific ideas that people hold to be true. Mills explains his beliefs that periods and societies change in respect to understanding them or not and requires direct references to historical value. Mills believed may this be true the historical past is only indirectly relevant to its understanding. Mills had a strong belief that without having an historic sense of psychological matters, it will limit the social scientist on seeing possible problems which have come about that need to be fixed, this demonstrated Mills belief that in order to reach full understanding of the issue at hand and to come up with the most adequate solutions for it the social scientist must first observe the issue at hand. Society is defined people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture. Mills shows society is one of the three co-ordinate points of the proper study of man along with biography and history. Mills shows we have the power to understand social structures and structural changes within our society as they bear upon more intimate scenes and experiences. This allows us as a society to see the importance of history when learning more about the social structure of man. When studying a society it is common for social scientists to use Abstracted Empiricism which I have mentioned in more detail in chapter 3. Mills explains the importance when studying a society to use biography methods when doing any sociological research. Popular culture is defined as cultural patterns that are widespread among a societys population. Mills demonstrates the importance in popular culture to when using history to get an idea of the psychological matters and the importance of popular culture when taking history into account to help find problems within a society that need to be changed. Mills shows popular culture is important in our day to day life and we tend to acknowledge one trend at a time rather than seeing the big whole picture of cultural patterns in our society. The main drawback of this is different people see different things. For example what one person may consider seeing popular culture as a whole another person may not which is why this has a lot of margin for error. Chapter 9, On Reason and Freedom In this chapter Mills discusses how society has gone to the fourth epoch as Mills calls the moving on from the modern age to the postmodern age. Mills speaks of how society has adapted to follow the rules given by social institutions and it is the sociologists job to bring society back and change the status quo. Mills shows how the power elite are controlling us and we as a society has lost our freedom to this hierarchy. The three concepts I am going to relate this chapter to include the Power Elite, the Cheerful Robot and Norms. The Power Elite is defined as a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, and access to decision-making of global consequence. Mills shows how the power elite have caused the freedom of people in the post modern age to become irrelevant due to the change in social structure and control the large and powerful institutions have over the rest of society. Mills shows that a society now being controlled by the power elite is causing people to feel alienated and helpless in their society. This leads onto Marx theory of the Cheerful Robot where society is alienated due to the power elite and therefore carries his actions about but with no reason about them while showing no concern about changing the status quo. The Cheerful Robot is a term Mills talks about in his book the power elite and is defined as people in society not questioning the government and accepting a way of life designed by the power elite. Mills shows clearly in this chapter how during the 1950s people were taking on the role of the Cheerful Robot. Mills says this as he noticed Americans were not living freely or using their freedom of choice. They were purely going through the everyday motions of what was considered the norms in society that was purposely set by the power elite. Mills showed everyone was looking to achieve the American Dream but this in itself was purely governed by the power elite and Americans were all prisoners within their Society Norms are defined as rules and expectations to which a society guides the behavior of its members. Mills showed society following these norms to be structured by the power elite. Mills discuses the government were the ones who made these norms of people not questioning what goes on with the people above them. This Mills shows clearly by demonstrating a man gets up

then goes to work for eight hours before going home which he then repeats daily. This was exactly what Mills was getting at when he showed how Society lost its freedom the moment they stopped questioning the norms of society. Mills believes breaking the norms which are set by the wealthy elite will bring back sociology rather than going down the same path of bureaucratic instrument that right now is dominated by the people on top of the hierarchy. Chapter 10, On Politics In this chapter Mills discusses his views on political with him going into depth on his three overriding political ideals inherent in the traditions of social science. Mills shows it is the task of social scientists to clarify the ideal of freedom and the ideal of reason. If human reason is to play a larger role in the making of history then it will be because of social scientists as this is what they are about. What Mills is getting at in this final chapter is to compare the difference between what men are interested in and what is to mens interest when looking at it from a sociological perspective. The three sociological ideas I am going to use to relate to this chapter include Social roles, High Culture and Norms Social roles are defined as a set of expectations of people who occupy a given social position or status. Mills shows how its the social role for a social scientist to clarify the ideal of freedom and the ideal of reason. Mills believes this because if human reason is to play a larger role in the making of history then it will be because of social scientists as this is what they are about. Mills clearly show that he believes that he does not believe the social role of a social scientist will save the world but there is no harm in trying. Mills shows it is a social scientists social role to make man become aware of mankind and it is the social scientist role to clarify the ideal of freedom and ideal of reason High Culture is defined as cultural patterns that distinguish societys elite. Mills demonstrates here that High Culture is what separates the amount of freedom a person has and therefore how free they are to make history. Mills shows although everyone can make history some people systematically have more freedom than others which is where the power elite come in to play allowing them to have so much power and freedom in society. Mills shows high culture depends on where society is at, at that particular time in history. Mills shows fate is not a universal fact, but rather it is a feature of a historically specific kind of social structure. Norms are defined as established standards of behavior maintained by a society. Mills questions the norms of society in this chapter rather than going along with the norms like the rest of society as he shows the social scientist needs to ask questions when they come across sociological problems. Mills shows the questions they may face when trying to solve problems such as whether they are aware of the uses and values of their work, whether these may be subject to their own control and whether they want to seek to control them which all needs to be thought through and a sociologist needs to questions the norms that you would expect for these answers and have an open mind when a social scientists assumes choices of values and use them in his work as a whole. 3 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE The *symbolic interactionist perspective*, also known as symbolic interactionism, directs sociologists to consider the symbols and details of everyday life, what these symbols mean, and how people interact with each other. Although symbolic interactionism traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that individuals act according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world, the American philosopher George H. Mead (18631931) introduced this perspective to American sociology in the 1920s.According to the symbolic interactionist perspective, people attach meanings to symbols, and then they act according to their subjective interpretation of these symbols. Verbal conversations, in which spoken words serve as the predominant symbols, make this subjective interpretation especially evident. The words have a certain meaning for the sender, and, during effective communication, they hopefully have the same meaning for the receiver. In other terms, words are not static things; they require intention and interpretation. Conversation is an interaction of symbols between individuals who constantly interpret the world around them. Of course, anything can serve as a symbol as long as it refers to something beyond itself. Written music serves as an example. The black dots and lines become more than mere marks on the page; they refer to notes organized in such a way as to make musical sense. Thus, symbolic interactionists give serious thought to how people act, and then seek to determine what meanings individuals assign to their own actions and symbols, as well as to those of others. Consider applying symbolic interactionism to the American institution of marriage. Symbols may include wedding bands, vows of lifelong commitment, a white bridal dress, a wedding cake, a Church ceremony, and flowers and music. American society attaches general meanings to these symbols, but individuals also maintain their own perceptions of what these and other symbols mean. For example, one of the

spouses may see their circular wedding rings as symbolizing never ending love, while the other may see them as a mere financial expense. Much faulty communication can result from differences in the perception of the same events and symbols. Critics claim that symbolic interactionism neglects the macro level of social interpretationthe big picture. In other words, symbolic interactionists may miss the larger issues of society by focusing too closely on the trees (for example, the size of the diamond in the wedding ring) rather than the forest (for example, the quality of the marriage). The perspective also receives criticism for slighting the influence of social forces and institutions on individual interactions. *The functionalist perspective* According to the functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society's functioning as a whole. The government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. That is, the family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become law abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state. If all goes well, the parts of society produce order, stability, and productivity. If all does not go well, the parts of society then must adapt to recapture a new order, stability, and productivity. For example, during a financial recession with its high rates of unemployment and inflation, social programs are trimmed or cut. Schools offer fewer programs. Families tighten their budgets. And a new social order, stability, and productivity occur. Functionalists believe that society is held together by social consensus, or cohesion, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole. Emile Durkheim suggested that social consensus takes one of two forms: Mechanical solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when people in a society maintain similar values and beliefs and engage in similar types of work. Mechanical solidarity most commonly occurs in traditional, simple societies such as those in which everyone herds cattle or farms. Amish society exemplifies mechanical solidarity. In contrast, organic solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when the people in a society are interdependent, but hold to varying values and beliefs and engage in varying types of work. Organic solidarity most commonly occurs in industrialized, complex societies such those in large American cities like New York in the 2000s. Among these American functionalist sociologists is Robert Merton (b. 1910), who divides human functions into two types: manifest functions are intentional and obvious, while latent functions are unintentional and not obvious. The manifest function of attending a church or synagogue, for instance, is to worship as part of a religious community, but its latent function may be to help members learn to discern personal from institutional values .. Functionalism has received criticism for neglecting the negative functions of an event such as divorce. Critics also claim that the perspective justifies the status quo and complacency on the part of society's members. Functionalism does not encourage people to take an active role in changing their social environment, even when such change may benefit them. Instead, functionalism sees active social change as undesirable because the various parts of society will compensate naturally for any problems that may arise. *The conflict perspective* The conflict perspective, which originated primarily out of Karl Marx's writings on class struggles, presents society in a different light than do the functionalist and symbolic interactionist perspectives. While these latter perspectives focus on the positive aspects of society that contribute to its stability, the conflict perspective focuses on the negative, conflicted, and ever changing nature of society. Unlike functionalists who defend the status quo, avoid social change, and believe people cooperate to effect social order, conflict theorists challenge the status quo, encourage social change (even when this means social revolution), and believe rich and powerful people force social order on the poor and the weak. Conflict theorists, for example, may interpret an elite board of regents raising tuition to pay for esoteric new programs that raise the prestige of a local college as self serving rather than as beneficial for students.Whereas American sociologists in the 1940s and 1950s generally ignored the conflict perspective in favor of the functionalist, the tumultuous 1960s saw American sociologists gain considerable interest in conflict theory.. The theory ultimately attributes humanitarian efforts, altruism, democracy, civil rights, and other positive aspects of society to capitalistic designs to control the masses, not to inherent interests in preserving society and social order.