Susan Samara
Blog 1
I will start off by asking
myself and you “What is Sociology?” Yes, I understand that I should know what it
is and I have come to learn from my previous Sociology classes as to what
Sociology means. However, I have to remind myself that Sociology is a systematic
study of individual groups and social structures. Makes sense right? It makes
sense when people like Allan, Mills, Lemert, Marx etc. come in the picture. They
are the ones who study the individual groups and social structures. Then the
other individuals, who are us, come in the picture. We, as individuals have to
understand what sociology really is and what socialists like Mills, Lemert or
Allan try to provide with their information and sociology background. The best
way to analyze them, understand and comprehend that information is through
Sociology Theory. As Professor Bradley Zopf Stated “Social theory can illuminate
the patterns of rules, norms and expectations giving you a greater ability to
understand, challenge, and transform them.” I read a piece written by C. Wright
Mills which was really interesting, taught me a lot and made me perceive things
in a different way.
Mills
writes about “The Promise of Sociology” which mainly focuses on human mankind,
how we think and why sociological imagination is important. Mills mentions how
men don’t understand their personal problems. If they were ever broke, they
don’t understand why they are in the position that they are in. There are ups
and downs that people experience in life. When we experience a down moment, we
feel heart broken and when we go through an up moment, we love it. However,
Mills states how we don’t understand why we experience things like that in life.
We don’t understand our experiences, life or things we go through daily. Mills
also provides with the information that we need the understanding of life, we
need to feel it and our experiences each and every day and that has to go
through Sociological Imagination. As Mills states “The Sociological
imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in
terms of it meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of
individuals” (Mills 2).
Sociological imagination is
the understanding between personal experiences and our social world. What I got
from Mills is in order to use the sociological imagination; we must distinguish
between personal troubles and public issues. The concept of that in my opinion has a
lot to do with what my friend experienced in high school. I got to witness a
close friend of mine who dropped out of high school and until this day, she
regrets it. She decided to drop out of high school because she was in a
relationship with an older guy, couldn’t handle school work and gave up. That is
considered as a personal problem. It was her personal problem because she is the
one that decided to drop out on her own, she is regretting it and it’s her own
problem to deal with those consequences. However, if the nation’s public schools
experience high drop rates, then that is a public issue. It’s a public issue
because it involves not just one person, but multiple people. It involves a
nation full of public schools that are experiencing the consequence of high drop
rates.
I don’t know if this exactly
fits in to what Mills really means by public issues and personal problems, but
getting laid off from work relates to that as well in my opinion. If one person
is laid off from a company, it becomes a personal problem because that
individual has to deal with its own consequences. That individual might not
have been good enough for the company and they had to let him go. However, if a
company has to let go multiple people and are forced to do so, then that
becomes a public issue. That would mean that the company is not running
properly, it doesn’t have enough money to keep everyone and it’s not investing
like it should.
Why do we go through the
things we do in life? Why do we experience unemployment? Why do we experience
happiness? Why do we experience sadness? Why do we experience wars? Why do we
experience death? Those are just some examples as to what we don’t really
understand. As Mills said, in order to succeed in understanding life and what we
go through, we have to use sociological
imagination.
Blog 1
I will start off by asking
myself and you “What is Sociology?” Yes, I understand that I should know what it
is and I have come to learn from my previous Sociology classes as to what
Sociology means. However, I have to remind myself that Sociology is a systematic
study of individual groups and social structures. Makes sense right? It makes
sense when people like Allan, Mills, Lemert, Marx etc. come in the picture. They
are the ones who study the individual groups and social structures. Then the
other individuals, who are us, come in the picture. We, as individuals have to
understand what sociology really is and what socialists like Mills, Lemert or
Allan try to provide with their information and sociology background. The best
way to analyze them, understand and comprehend that information is through
Sociology Theory. As Professor Bradley Zopf Stated “Social theory can illuminate
the patterns of rules, norms and expectations giving you a greater ability to
understand, challenge, and transform them.” I read a piece written by C. Wright
Mills which was really interesting, taught me a lot and made me perceive things
in a different way.
Mills
writes about “The Promise of Sociology” which mainly focuses on human mankind,
how we think and why sociological imagination is important. Mills mentions how
men don’t understand their personal problems. If they were ever broke, they
don’t understand why they are in the position that they are in. There are ups
and downs that people experience in life. When we experience a down moment, we
feel heart broken and when we go through an up moment, we love it. However,
Mills states how we don’t understand why we experience things like that in life.
We don’t understand our experiences, life or things we go through daily. Mills
also provides with the information that we need the understanding of life, we
need to feel it and our experiences each and every day and that has to go
through Sociological Imagination. As Mills states “The Sociological
imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in
terms of it meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of
individuals” (Mills 2).
Sociological imagination is
the understanding between personal experiences and our social world. What I got
from Mills is in order to use the sociological imagination; we must distinguish
between personal troubles and public issues. The concept of that in my opinion has a
lot to do with what my friend experienced in high school. I got to witness a
close friend of mine who dropped out of high school and until this day, she
regrets it. She decided to drop out of high school because she was in a
relationship with an older guy, couldn’t handle school work and gave up. That is
considered as a personal problem. It was her personal problem because she is the
one that decided to drop out on her own, she is regretting it and it’s her own
problem to deal with those consequences. However, if the nation’s public schools
experience high drop rates, then that is a public issue. It’s a public issue
because it involves not just one person, but multiple people. It involves a
nation full of public schools that are experiencing the consequence of high drop
rates.
I don’t know if this exactly
fits in to what Mills really means by public issues and personal problems, but
getting laid off from work relates to that as well in my opinion. If one person
is laid off from a company, it becomes a personal problem because that
individual has to deal with its own consequences. That individual might not
have been good enough for the company and they had to let him go. However, if a
company has to let go multiple people and are forced to do so, then that
becomes a public issue. That would mean that the company is not running
properly, it doesn’t have enough money to keep everyone and it’s not investing
like it should.
Why do we go through the
things we do in life? Why do we experience unemployment? Why do we experience
happiness? Why do we experience sadness? Why do we experience wars? Why do we
experience death? Those are just some examples as to what we don’t really
understand. As Mills said, in order to succeed in understanding life and what we
go through, we have to use sociological
imagination.