According to Kenneth Allan in Sociology, Theory, and the Modern Agenda the idea of social theory first began with modernity when various concepts, visible to the public, arose as the effects of institutions like capitalism, industrialization, urbanization, and science. Because of these institutions is how we start to see numerous amounts of problems in societies. The goal of sociologists is to explain the reasons and relationships for why problems like disease, unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and pollution among many others occur. These are issues or concepts that can be measurable in different ways, therefore theories can be empirically tested (see Allan). If enough evidence, then social theories can be constructed to explain the relationships between different concepts.
In Social Theory: Its Uses and Pleasures, Charles Lemert writes about how social theory is an everyday activity and that everyone is a social theorist. He states that, “social theory…is simply a name for talk about the social world” (12). He believes that everyone possess a sociological imagination from which one can clearly see their own stance in society and therefore can come up with their own conclusions about the way society works. The idea is to identify one’s self within a larger context.
C. Wright Mills established that the sociological imagination is the ability individuals have to become aware of their place in society and to recognize the link between individuals and society. Two concepts under the social imagination that help make a distinction between different social aspects in society are categorized as ‘personal troubles’ and ‘public issues’. Personal problems are those immediate relations that the person has control over while public issues are those external factors in society that the person has no control over. I believe modernity is the pivotal point in time where we see sociologists starting to tackle the ‘personal troubles’ that were once not as apparent and crystal clear in societies as ‘public issues’. A pattern and a large amount of instances in what are considered personal troubles usually lead to what sociologists categorized as public issues.
As mentioned before, the institutions brought on by modernity raised many problems in society. For example, one of those problems is pollution and it can be seen through different aspects and different levels. Pollution can be seen as a personal trouble when someone litters the streets and others around them, like neighbors, are bothered by their behaviors. It is a much bigger problem when this becomes a public issue. It is not only about a large amounts of people throwing their garbage in the streets, it about institutions within large populations not taking the right measures to keep the environment clean . This not only raises problems for the environment, but for the general public’s health as well. In 2007, according to the American Lung Association (ALA), forty-six percent of all Americans lived in counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Also, “CNN reported that up to 500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents and toxic sludge slip into the global water supply every year”. It is because of issues like these that sociologists are compelled to identify the relationships between individuals and ideas, concepts and institutions within society.
Allan mentioned that, “Comprehending these issues, and how sociology came to exist is paramount for understanding theory, sociology, and in the end society itself and your place in it” (4). The sociological imagination is what helps not only sociologists, but the general public as well to recognized their place in society and the different relationships that exist within a society. From these realizations is where we start to construct sociological theories.
In Social Theory: Its Uses and Pleasures, Charles Lemert writes about how social theory is an everyday activity and that everyone is a social theorist. He states that, “social theory…is simply a name for talk about the social world” (12). He believes that everyone possess a sociological imagination from which one can clearly see their own stance in society and therefore can come up with their own conclusions about the way society works. The idea is to identify one’s self within a larger context.
C. Wright Mills established that the sociological imagination is the ability individuals have to become aware of their place in society and to recognize the link between individuals and society. Two concepts under the social imagination that help make a distinction between different social aspects in society are categorized as ‘personal troubles’ and ‘public issues’. Personal problems are those immediate relations that the person has control over while public issues are those external factors in society that the person has no control over. I believe modernity is the pivotal point in time where we see sociologists starting to tackle the ‘personal troubles’ that were once not as apparent and crystal clear in societies as ‘public issues’. A pattern and a large amount of instances in what are considered personal troubles usually lead to what sociologists categorized as public issues.
As mentioned before, the institutions brought on by modernity raised many problems in society. For example, one of those problems is pollution and it can be seen through different aspects and different levels. Pollution can be seen as a personal trouble when someone litters the streets and others around them, like neighbors, are bothered by their behaviors. It is a much bigger problem when this becomes a public issue. It is not only about a large amounts of people throwing their garbage in the streets, it about institutions within large populations not taking the right measures to keep the environment clean . This not only raises problems for the environment, but for the general public’s health as well. In 2007, according to the American Lung Association (ALA), forty-six percent of all Americans lived in counties with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Also, “CNN reported that up to 500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents and toxic sludge slip into the global water supply every year”. It is because of issues like these that sociologists are compelled to identify the relationships between individuals and ideas, concepts and institutions within society.
Allan mentioned that, “Comprehending these issues, and how sociology came to exist is paramount for understanding theory, sociology, and in the end society itself and your place in it” (4). The sociological imagination is what helps not only sociologists, but the general public as well to recognized their place in society and the different relationships that exist within a society. From these realizations is where we start to construct sociological theories.