Sociologist C. Wright (1959 b) described sociological reasoning as the “Sociological imagination- the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. This awareness enables us to understand the link between our personal experiences and the social context in which they occur. The sociological imagination helps us distinguish between personal trouble and social (or public) issues. ( Kendall ; 2007). A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own Society as an outsider would, rather than from the limited perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases. Sociological imagination allow us to go beyond personal experience and in attempting to understand social behavior, sociologists rely on an unusual type of creating thinking. C. Wright Mills (1959) described such thinking as the sociological imagination- an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society. This awareness allows people (not simply sociologists) to comprehend the links between their immediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonal social world that surrounds them and helps to shape them.
A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own society as an outsider would, rather than from the limited perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases. Sociological imagination allows us to go beyond personal experiences and observations to understand broader public issues. Unemployment, for example, is unquestionably a personal hardship for a man or woman without a job. However, C. Wright Mills pointed out that when unemployment is a social problem shared by millions of people, it is appropriate to question the way that a society is structured or organized. Similarly, Mills advocated use of the sociological imagination to view divorce not simply as the personal problem of a particular man and woman, but rather as a structural problem, since it is the outcome of many marriages. And he was writing this in the 1950s, when the divorce rate was but a fraction of what it is today ( I . Horowitz, 1983:87-108)
Sociological imagination can bring new understanding to daily life around us.
A SOCIOLOGICAL OUTLOOK
The sociological imagination require us, above all, to ‘think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily life in order to look at them a new. Consider the simple act of drinking Coffee. What could we find to say, from a sociological point of view about such an apparently uninteresting piece of behavior an enormous amount.
We could point out first of all that coffee is not just refreshment. It possesses Symbolic value as part of our day-to-day Social activities, Often the ritual associated with coffee drinking is much more important than the act of consuming the drink itself. For many westerners the morning cup of coffee stands at the centre of a personal routine. It is an essential first step to starting the day. Morning coffee is often followed later in the day by coffee with others-the basis of a social ritual. Two people who arrange to meet for coffee are probably more interested in getting together & chatting than in what they actually drink. Drinking and eating in all societies, in fact, provide occasions for social interaction and the enactment of rituals- and these offer a rich subject matter for sociological study.
Second, coffee is a drug, containing caffeine, which has a Stimulating effect on the brain. Many people drink coffee for the extra lift it provides. Long days at the office and late nights studying are made more tolerable by coffee breaks. Coffee is a habit – forming substance, but coffee addicts are not regarded by most people in Western culture as drug users.
Third the individual who drinks cup of coffee is caught up in a complicated set of social & economic relationships stretching across the world. Coffee is a product which links people in some of the wealthiest & most impoverished parts of the planet, it is consumed in great quantities in wealthy Countries, but is grown primarily in poor ones, and it provides many countries, with their largest source of foreign exchange. The production & transportation of coffee require continuous transactions between people thousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Studying such global transactions is an important task of sociology since many aspects of our lives are now affected by worldwide social influences and communications.
Fourth, the act of sipping a coffee presumes a whole process of past social & economic development. Along with other now familiar items of western diets – like teas, bananas, potatoes & white sugar – coffee became widely consumed only from the late 1800s. Although the drink originated in the Middle East , its mass consumption dates, from the period of Western expansion about a century & a half ago. Virtually all the coffee we drink today comes from areas (South America & Africa) that were colonized by Europeans, it is in no sense a ‘natural’ part of the Western diet. The colonial legacy has had an enormous impact of the development of the global coffee trade.
Fifth coffee is a product that stands at the heart of contemporary debates, about globalization, international trade, human rights & environmental destruction. As coffee has grown in popularity, it has become ‘branded’ & politicized; the decisions that consumers make about what kind of coffee to drink & where to purchase it have become life style choices. Individuals may choose to drink only organic coffee, natural decaffeinated coffee or coffee that has been ‘fairly traded’ through schemes, that pay full market prices, to small coffee producers in developing countries. They may opt to patronize ‘independent’ coffee houses, rather than corporate coffee chains such as starbuch which is a brand in UK . Coffee drinkers might decide to boycott coffee from certain, with poor human rights & environmental records. Sociologist are interested to understand how globalization heightens people awareness of issues accruing in distant corners of the planet & prompts them to act on new knowledge in their own life.
Source: Study Material, Mumbai University. Foundation of Sociology
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