GS F231-DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

RESPONSE PAPER 1:
Shaik Adil Islam
2012A3PS194P
Main thesis or argument
I. The opening paragraphs describe the sentiment that people feel trapped in
their daily lives and are unable to overcome it.They attribute it to
immediate social environment and fail to look at it from a larger social
point of view.
II. A new term "Sociological imagination" which explains that there are larger
factors at work namely history,biography,social structure which effect how
society and individuals interact ,influence each other and to be able to
comprehend that one's social lives are affected by social context, culture,
history and social actions.
III. The final section discusses the difference between "private troubles" and "public
issues".


Summary of Main Ideas
I. Individualistic explanations tend to overlook social trends (e.g. unemployment
and marriage).
I. "Sociological imagination " is the ability to see things socially and how they
interact and influence each other.
II. A trouble is a private matter: values cherished by an individual are felt by her to
be threatened. Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local
environments of the individual and the range of her inner life.



RESPONSE

This article touches upon few important philosophical pieces of interest like "
Free Will ","Determinism","Pragmatism" and "Fatalism".Man does not have
control over surroundings.He acts according to whims and fancies of those
around him or the social factors or instituitions.His social status,economic
condition and moral principles are determined by social structures and
instituitions more often than imaginable.Suppose a country decides to go to war
GS F231-DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
and decides that every physically eligible person ought to fight in it,he is left with
no choice but to fight for the country or altogether leave it.His family has to suffer
for no reason of theirs which is something imposed upon them by the social
institution of "Nation".Similarly Hitler decided to execute all Jews in Germany as
a result of a flawed social dogma of "Racial Superiority" of Aryan Race.

Marx's theory of class struggle advocates the idea that individuals come together
to decide the fate of social structures and instituitions.But "Sociological
Imagination" offers to look both ways which can be better used to explain social
change.

Sociological imagination is the best equipped to deal with modern social change
as former theories were formulated to explain the social order in the past
societies.Though Durkheim does make use of sociological imagination to explain
suicide,his theory of social solidarity does not explain the fact that individuals and
societies behave and work differently under different social conditions like the
example of war where a salesperson can turn into a weapon
manufacturer.Therefore "sociological imagination " aspires to describe the
relationship between "Microstructures" and "Macrostructures" in the broadest
way possible.

Even Environment has an impact on societies and individuals,for example a
highly resourceful civilization can afford to engage in lavishness,leisure and
unnecessary pleasures.Similarly societies with poor amount of resources can ill
afford to do so.






WORD COUNT:461 WORDS in total excluding headings.