Sociology Case

Question 1:

According to C. Wright Mills, what occurs in any one individual's life is interconnected with society as a whole. The sociological imagination gives us the ability to understand the link of one's biography, history, and traditions along with the knowledge of the social and historical impact and/or influence society may have on certain people or groups of people. You cannot understand the life of an individual or the history of society without understanding both. Mills' insight forces us to look further into an individual's biography and lifestyles. Mills says in order to understand this "imagination" you need to be able to determine the distinction between the public issues and the personal troubles. The troubles are of the individual. However, when the same trouble is experienced by many people it becomes an issue of society. He is showing us that in order to correct the issues of society we must take into account the individuals who make up society as a whole and their individual troubles. For example, if you are unemployed that is a personal trouble, but when this unemployment starts affecting more and more people, like it is today, it becomes an issue.

When thinking on how we look at problems and issues in the world today, you forget about how much this process has changed from centuries ago. We have moved from religious explanations to secular ones. Many people believed in the miasma theory of disease. Miasma was defined as "bad air." It was considered to be a poisonous vapor or mist that contained particles from decomposed matter, known as miasmata that caused illnesses. People identified it by its terrible smell. In the 1850s, miasma was used to explain the spread of cholera in London and Paris. It was said that by cleaning your body and items around you could prevent the disease. It was believed that cholera was transmitted by air, and that most of the miasmata was located in southern England near the River Thames' banks. Since many people accepted this miasma theory of disease, John Snow's partially correct theory was not even considered. Snow was a physician who said that cholera was spread through water. By talking to locals, he figured out that the source of the outbreak was because of the public water pump on Broad Street. Snow later drew a map to illustrate how cases of cholera were centered around the pump. He wanted to inform the people that the causes of sicknesses were not because of the lack of doing prayers, but because of environmental factors such as germs.

Although these earlier religious beliefs meant a lot to the people centuries ago, looking back on it makes you appreciate the knowledge and resources to obtains such knowledge that we have today. Religious beliefs change with time and the people following it decide how they want to interpret it. The things important today have changed greatly from what was important back then. How was look externally is so much more important than how we look internally. What is important today is getting a job and making lots of money, when in the earlier days it was about religion and making sure you weren't missing any daily prayers. We understand now that when you fail a test it is because you didn't study and if you catch a stomach virus it's because of germs going around. Pointing fingers at God doesn't do anything. We are able to find the real reason behind these kinds of things now. It is clear to see that the materialist understanding of reality is more effective than Religious, Magical or Philosophical understandings of the world.

Question 2a:

If you were to look up the definition of culture in a dictionary, you most likely would not get what you were looking for. Culture is a word that can be and is interpreted is many different ways. Cultural sociology is a method that incorporates cultural analysis into interpretations of social life. Culture includes the ideas, norms, objects, and symbols of societies and emphasizes the meanings. Sociology of culture studies cultural impacts on societies and of social interaction. Culture is incredibly varied with many different approaches and emphases. Culture, based