In his classic The Sociological Imagination (1959) Essay Example For Students

In his classic The Sociological Imagination (1959) Essay , the late C. Wright Mills suggests that sociologists have a special insight into the social world, because they have the ability to understand the subtle linkage between personal experience and the structure if the society as a whole. C. Wright Mills feels that people have problems seeing beyond their immediate situation. In his simplest terms, the sociological imagination shows how individuals fit into the big picture. Mills offers examples dealing with unemployment and divorce. He then goes on to say, when only one man is unemployed, that is his personal trouble. His skills can be explained by lack of skills, opportunities, or willingness to work. However when millions of American workers our jobless this is a social problem. Either the economy is not producing enough job opportunities. Mills explain unemployment as: if one person cant or is having trouble finding a job is there lack of effort, but if a lot of people is having a trouble finding a job then it the lack of the society for not producing enough jobs. Then, Mills considers the general rise in divorce rates in American. A couple may be unhappily married, but when one out of two American marriages end in divorce, it is taken beyond a particular couples personal troubles. The sociological imagination suggests the causes of divorce must be understood in terms of social developments that have made married life less satisfactory. In this short essay C. Wright Mills talks about his classic The Sociological Imagination (1959) He then goes on and explain the concept in his view of unemployment and divorce in the USA. How individuals fit in the big picture. Then, Mills goes on to say, We will not be able to understand ourselves or the world without understanding the groups to which we belong and the society in which we live. .