Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 41

Events in our social world affect our individual lives. If we are unemployed or lack funds for a college education, we may say this is a personal problem. Yet broader social issues are often at the root of our situation. The sociological imagination holds that we can best understand our personal experiences and problems by examining their broader social context—by looking at the big picture.

Many individual problems (private troubles) are rooted in social or public issues (what is happening in the social world outside one’s personal control). Distinguished sociologist C. Wright Mills called the ability to understand this complex interactive relationship between individual experiences and public issues the sociological imagination. For Mills, many personal experiences can and should be interpreted in the context of large-scale forces in the wider society (Mills 1959).

Consider, for example, someone you know who has been laid off from a job. This personal trauma is a common situation during a recession. Unemployed persons often experience feelings of inadequacy or lack of self-worth because of the job loss. Their unemployment, though, may be due to larger forces such as a machine taking over their job, unsound banking practices, corporate downsizing, or a corporation taking operations to another country where labor costs are cheaper and there are fewer environmental regulations on companies. People may blame themselves or each other for personal troubles such as unemployment or marital problems, believing that they did not try hard enough. Often, they do not see the connection between their private lives and larger economic and social forces beyond their control. They fail to recognize the public issues that create private troubles.

If you are having trouble paying for college, that may feel like a very personal trouble. High tuition rates, though, relate to a dramatic decline in governmental support for public higher education and financial aid for students. The rising cost of a college education is a serious public issue that our society needs to address. Individuals, alone, cannot reduce the high price of college.

As you learn about sociology, you will begin to notice how social forces shape individual lives and group behavior. This knowledge helps us understand aspects of everyday life we take for granted. In this book you will learn to view the social world and your place in it from a sociological perspective as you develop your sociological imagination. Connecting events from the global and national levels to the personal and intimate level of our own lives is the core organizing theme of this book.

Thinking Sociologically

How has divorce, poverty, or war caused personal troubles for someone you know? Give examples of why it is inadequate to explain these personal troubles by examining only the personal characteristics of those affected.