ASSIGNEMNT: The sociological imagination

The Online Activity 2 is due by 11:30 p.m on February 3 2022 and requires three posts total using the Discussion Board: one post responding to the question and two more responding to fellow students’ posts. As noted in the assignment, properly formatted APA style citations and a reference listing are required.

Online Activity 2: Using The Sociological Imagination
C. Wright Mills (1959), coined the term “The Sociological Imagination,” which he described as a way of understanding one’s personal circumstance in the full context of larger social and historical circumstances. As Mills put it, the sociological imagination enables individuals to understand the “intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history” (1959, p.4). To use the sociological imagination, then, is to think beyond a personal situation and understand that situation in terms of the wider context of human social life (Giddens, Duneier, Applebaum & Carr, 2009, p. 6).

Consider the following, Mills noted that it is an individual problem if a single person is unemployed but it is an entirely different matter if 15 million of 50 million workers in a country are unemployed because of an economic depression, etc. (Mills, 1959, p. 9).

By way of another example, it is one thing if an individual or family emigrates and takes up residence in a new country, but, if there are boatloads of frightened people taking a perilous trip from Africa across the Mediterranean, risking life in the hands of smugglers, for a chance to land in Western Europe, using our sociological imagination we would ask, what is going on? Perhaps you or your family are immigrants; you are part of a massive global disporia. For example, in the city of Toronto, more than half of the residents were born outside of the country, Canada (City of Toronto, 1998-2015).

Of course, it need not be as dramatic as the above examples. You could use your sociological imagination to evaluate your taste in fashion, your music preferences, whether or not you use social media, whether or not you have joined the stampede to get a tattoo, or whether or not your preference in coffee is Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, fair trade, or whatever is cheapest at No-Frills.

What Mills describes as the sociological imagination is the capacity to understand the social forces that are at work in these situations.

In this activity we want you to use your sociological imagination:

Take a personal experience, situation, or even difficulty, and think beyond your personal life to the larger social and historical circumstances that provide the context in which you are living. Describe an experience, situation or difficulty and relate this to a larger social context, using the idea of the \”sociological imagination\” as your framework.
Be a sociologist and apply one of the major theories (Functionalist and Conflict) to your narrative: which theory best describes your experience and why does that theory best describe your experience?
Post three times total:

once with your original blog post responding directly to the question
respond to a fellow student; and
respond to another fellow student.
Include (APA style) citations and a reference list. (But other elements of APA style, such as an abstract, are not required.) See further specific instructions below.

References

City of Toronto. (1998-2015). Toronto Facts: Diversity. Retrieved from http://www1.toronto.ca/ wps/portal/contentonly? vgnextoid=dbe867b42d853410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD& vgnextchannel=57a12cc817453410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

Giddens, A., Duneier, M, Applebaum, R. P., Carr, D. (2009). Introduction to sociology (9th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

INSTRUCTIONS
Introduction: clearly identify your response and what you have chosen to discuss.
Body Paragraphs: each paragraph should contain discrete ideas. You should demonstrate both an understanding of the relevant sociological ideas and concepts, and also your creative and critical thinking about the subject.
Conclusion: summarize your concluding thoughts about the topic; it is always a good idea to reiterate the main point(s) of your piece to drive this home as a take-away for your readers.
Overall, you should be thinking of this main post as a short essay, about a page (if double-spaced) long (about 300 – 500 words: I am not really concerned with your going over the limit, but rather am concerned about your writing too little).
Click for citation basicsIn-text citations: You must provide citations of sources (i.e., course materials) when you draw on another\’s ideas or concepts, or if you quote any of those ideas. Please see Intext Citations: The Basics if you are not familiar with intext citations: what they are and why you should be using them. Properly formatted, APA style citations (and a reference list, see below) are required for this assignment.
Click for reference basic rulesList of References: in addition to citations, you must provide a list of the work you cited in your response. Please see Reference List: Basic Rules if you are not familiar with how to organize your list of references.
Respond to two (2) of the group members: this is your opportunity to respond to your peers about what they have chosen to share, about what interests you have in common or are dissimilar, or to ask questions. Be creative and inquisitive but not probing or offensive. These posts will be shorter, of course, but say enough so that you are really engaging in the content of your colleagues\’ posts and thus expanding the conversation.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

The Sociological Imagination
Sociological imagination, as described by Mills, helps associate personal challenges to emerging public issues. It helps the possessor to have a broader view of happenings in life, their meanings and historical perspectives (Edwards, Housley, Williams, Sloan & Williams, 2013). My personal experience regards my college choice and the choice of the specialty to take. While growing up, I have always wanted to do art and specifically music which I am passionate about. However, my parents and elder siblings who I regard as my immediate academic mentors had very different opinion about my choice. None was ready to embrace art as an academic investment. Their perception was that music was for people who have failed and probably have no focus in life. I was….