C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills was an American sociologist from the 20th century, and created a concept called sociological imagination. Sociological imagination is defined as an awareness of the relationship between who we are as individual people and all of the social forces that mold and shape our lives. Mill's describes sociological imagination as our ability to see between history and biography. This concept was to help us see our place in the world in new ways. He quoted, " that neither the life of an individual nor the history of society can be understood without understanding both".

Sociological imagination enables us to see things through a broader perspective, and shows us how factors like age, race, gender, class, ethnicity, and our educational level shape us in preferences in opportunities and perceptions. For example, the September 11th attack on America uses sociological imagination to understand how Muslims perceive the United States. C. Wright Mills writes about issues and problems that matter to people C. Wright Mills follows symbolic interactionism, because he feels people will either respect laws or disobey them based on their own past experiences. Mill's sociological perspective focuses mainly on problems of modern industrial societies and the people that populate the world. The sociological imagination he calls for is a way of looking at the entire world so that we can see between private problems and important social issues. Mills believed sociology should be used to advocate for social change. To have a sociological imagination you must pull yourself away from a situation and be able to look and think from an alternate point of view.

C. Wright Mills also developed an elite model in 1956 called The Power Elite. He said that a small group of military, industrial, and government leaders controlled the fate and direction of the United States. He also believed power rested on the hands of a few, both in and out side of the government. Mills referred to these people as warlords. This model is difficult to test because Mills failed to clarify when the elite opposes protests and when it would tolerate them. He also provided no case studies to prove interrelationships among the power elite members. His theory did however, force scholars to look closer at our democratic system of politics.

Bibliography

Mills, C. Wright, " C. Wright Mills Homepage", edited by Frank W. Elwell, 2001, Retrieved January 6, 2013, http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/-felwell/Theorists/Mills/index.htm