Sociology / Unit 1 Soc 0010 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Sociological Imagination
Captions available
The idea
The sociological imagination, named by C. Wright Mills, is the awareness that a person's private experience is shaped by history and social structure.
In practice
Whom a person marries feels wholly personal, yet law, income, religion, and neighborhood narrow the field first.
Where people slip
The claim is that choice is shaped, not that choice is absent.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Sociology