I,C,Wright Mills,The
Sociological Imagination
II,Peter Berger,Invitation to
Sociology
III,Using the Sociological
Imagination and MicroCase
Explorit Data to Follow in
Durkheim?s footsteps in
Understanding Suicide
C,Wright Mills,Sociology
as a Form of Imagination
? A classic statement (1959)
about the promise of
sociology
? Are there ways in which it
seems dated?
? Are there ways in which it
seems contemporary?
C,Wright Mills,Sociology
as a Form of Imagination
? A product of its time that still
speaks powerfully to us today
? What is the,sociological
imagination” basically about?
The Connection Between
History and Biography
“The sociological imagination enables us to
grasp history and biography and the relations
between the two within society,That is its
task and its promise… No social study that
does not come back to the problems of
biography,of history and of their
intersections within a society has completed
its intellectual journey.”
The Connection Between
Personal Troubles and
Public Issues
“Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with
which the sociological imagination works is
between ?the personal troubles of milieu? and
?the public issues of social structure.? This
distinction is an essential tool of the
sociological imagination and a feature of all
classic work in social science.”
The Sociological Imagination
So what does the sociological imagination
help us do?
What does Mills? discussion suggest about
the nature of sociology?
Peter Berger
“The first wisdom of sociology is this--
things are not what they seem.”
What does this mean?
What are its implications?
Peter Berger
“There is a debunking motif inherent in
sociological consciousness….the
roots of the debunking motif in
sociology are not psychological but
methodological.”
A Sociological Classic
that illustrates the
sociological imagination,
Emile Durkheim?s
Suicide,a Study in
Sociology (1899)
? Our next task,To use the sociological
imagination to reinvent Durkheim?s theory
of suicide,using the Explorit/Microcase
program,