C

C. Wright Mills

The Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills

August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962Political Sociologist

The New Men of Power: America's Labor Leaders (1948)White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951)

The Power Elite (1956)The Sociological Imagination (1959)

The Sociological Imagination

Biography

HistorySociety

" No social study that does not come back to the problem of biography, of history and of their interactions within a society has completed its intellectual journey." Mills-p.3

Mills' Three Questions

Q. 1) What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?

Q. 2) Where does this society stand in human history?

Q. 3) What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this

period?

Troubles & Issues

Connecting the micro and macro

ISSUES

• “ Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of her inner life. .

• They have to do with the organization of many such milieu into the institutions of an historical society as a whole, with the ways in which various milieux overlap and interpenetrate to form the larger structure of social and historical life. ..

• An issue is a public matter: some value cherished by publics is felt to be threatened. An issue, in fact, often involves a crisis in institutional arrangements, and often too it involves what Marxists call 'contradictions' or 'antagonisms.‘”

Troubles

• “Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his or her immediate relations with others;

• they have to do with one's self and with those limited areas of social life of which one is directly and personally aware….

• A trouble is a private matter: values cherished by an individual are felt by her to be threatened.”

Private Troubles

An unemployed 61 year man discovers that he has cancer.

A low income single mother of three discovers that she has type II diabetes.

A young husband and father receives a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Private Troubles

A 42 year old first time mother–to-be discovers the child she is about to deliver will be profoundly

handicapped.

A young husband and father receives a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Private Troubles

A pediatrician works at a community clinic in a lower income area of a major city. One of her biggest

concerns is the increasing number of obese pediatric patients she is seeing. She notices that many of the

parents appear overweight and have a family history of diabetes.

Private Troubles

An immigrant worker falls from a ladder and appears to have broken his arm. He refuses to go to the hospital

and his employer tells him to go home. 

Private Troubles

A high school boy asks his doctor about getting a prescription for ADHD medication even though he

shows no evidence of the disorder.

A man, who has been stopped a number of times by the police for aggressive driving, gets a prescription for

medication for “road rage”, a now recognized psychiatric condition.

VALUES & THREATS

Awareness of Values

YES NO

Perception of

Threat

YESCRISIS  ANXIETY

MALAISE 

NO WELL-BEING 

INDIFFERENCE