in this lecture we're going to talk about the sociological imagination which is a phrase that was developed by C wri Mills an American sociologist of the 20th century and it's a phrase that we see an introduction of Sociology courses uh around the country um but I think very few go to the original work of Mills and also very few try to connect the personal lives and experiences of students to the concept and I think by both reading the original work and making personal connections to the phrase it makes it far more easy to understand the phrase and also it shows uh just how useful an idea it is one way to begin thinking about a sociological imagination is to find examples of where we see connections between the agency and life of an individual uh with historical and and structural influences and I think a really interesting example of that is found in the obituary of Harriet lazerov who uh it settled Harriet lazerov last of a truck farmer's wife uh there's immediate references to the economy to uh family uh gender and so forth and we then see that her life is historically situated as it uh began Begins by stating that she was born at the beginning of the the Great Depression but we learned quite a lot about Harriet uh not in a uh way that just isolates her as an individual but the obituary goes through a variety of social Arenas that she interacted with throughout her life we learn about family formations uh we learn about uh her education uh we learn about her activities within the market economy uh we learn about her involvement with religion and so on and so I asked students to write uh a sociological profile it's less morbid sounding than a a sociological obituary but one of the things I encourage uh you all to do and in in writing that is to think about how your life is told through uh various interactions uh and locations within different Arenas in modern society and in many ways to understand Harriet you have to understand the society she was living in and what was going on at that time and how she interacted uh with various parts of that society and the same is true with with people today to understand your own self you have to look at how you are interacting with uh the various Arenas in contemporary society and uh one thing to take away from this is that uh throughout your life you do have individual agency you weren't able to select when you were born uh you weren't able to select the circumstances of it or anything along those lines but you then be begin a process of making decisions and acting in different ways uh within a variety of different uh Arenas of social life this includes religion this includes economy this includes family uh and so forth and just like Harriet you make decisions and that is how uh we can understand yourself I use a second obituary to provide a way of differentiating the social sciences from the Natural Sciences and uh to do that I I asked students to read Karen sow's obituary it's different from Harriet's obituary this obituary of of Karen's is is written by her brother and from that perspective uh there's a different account of the person's life and specifically we can see there's much more of an emotional account provided and one of the things that we learn in the social sciences not just sociology but across the social sciences is that our our subject that we study uh our fellow humans and the various societies they develop uh their histories their individual actions and so forth uh we're studying others that are uh involved in this Human Experience this is different than uh studying things in you know outer space or in the Natural Sciences uh and at times it be can be quite rewarding uh to to develop research develop insights into The Human Experience other times it can be quite frustrating because we can be difficult to study uh we are different than uh other subjects of study and one of these things we can see in this obituary is this kind of emotional humanistic element uh of our experience ience and uh I I just bring this up as a way of at the beginning of semester is just as a way of uh reminding students there are differences uh in both the topic and some of the challenges uh in social sciences when compared to to Natural Sciences to provide a historical reference to uh the person that's asking you to write a a sociological profile and about myself uh I use this line from a De La Soul album uh where it begins with a verse begins with let me tell you a little something about the self and similar to a lot of the uh connections that we see with Harriet um there to talk about the self in this verse uh there's connections to larger structural issues and so to understand that self to tell you something about a self uh you see even in in De La Soul uh that there's a uh a need to connect individual agency uh with structural and historical influences when writing your sociological profile you're encouraged to think about your location in world history that uh each of us are born at different times again not of our own choosing um but we are born during certain moments in human history and those historical conditions can certainly influence the life that we that we live uh those historical and structural influences shape the type of society that we're in and therefore shape the different types of experiences um that we can we can have as in our individual lives of course uh we do have individual agency and so uh to to provide that profile of an individual uh we can talk about the individual agency that each of you has in religion in things like culture in Family Life uh in education in the economy and so forth and uh in telling that story it's making certain references to history and moments in time and it's not something that's always at uh the front of our mind we're thinking about our own individual actions but it one of the things that sociology reminds us of is that these actions we we take uh the lives we live Le the lives we live those are all taking uh place within certain historical and social contexts often when we are encouraged to think about ourself uh we're encouraged to think about this fixed Essence uh within all of us and within each of us I should say and um rarely do we ever think about uh our uh exchange with more structural issues and uh how that certainly has an influence on us uh and also we're discouraged to think about uh how we can have an impact on structural forces um so in contemporary Society there's a there's a a organization of social relations in a in a certain way right now and it's changed from the past it'll change in the future and so forth and one of the things the sociological imagination encourages us to think about is that yes we are influenced by by uh the society that we're born into um but also we have the ability to influence that society and um far too often people are discouraged from thinking along those lines that uh our agency counts and um our decisions along with others uh shape the way that Society is formed the way that social relations are organized and therefore shape the and influence the the future of that Society often we're thought of we're encouraged to think these events are so distant from us and we have no bearing on them or anything along those lines uh when that isn't the case uh and one of the things that we want to encourage is that you know the the the the current relationship or the current organization of social relations uh is contingent on a number of factors and those factors include us uh we do have individual agency and it's one of the more promising uh messages I think in mills's work on the sociological imagination I asked each of you to write up a sociological profile uh of your own selves and um I'll I'll take part in this as well and I'll talk about some aspects of my own self mainly in in how you come to meet me as someone that's teaching a Introduction to Sociology class at shauny State University in Portsmouth Ohio um but of of course there's a range of different uh Arenas that people can um talk about when they talk about the construction of their self um and who their self is and this ranges in everything from um Family religion um economy education uh and uh a variety of other of other networks uh I'll select just a few and I'll go through it and it tells a little bit about my story you get to learn about uh myself if if I ask you to write about yourself it's only fair that I I tell you a little bit about myself well look at these photos uh here I am in my New Jersey driver's license um couple years apart I suppose and um one of the things we can see is in defining my own self I was born in New York City and I I grew up in New Jersey um in um ways of defining me we can see that here's one definition of myself as a as a licensed driver and uh here's an interaction with a state regulatory uh agency or Department uh and here I had the agency and made the decision to um elect to to become a licensed driver and uh therefore be defined uh by a state in a certain way of course that then has connections with other parts of society including things um you know like uh things like renting a car or or allowing me to do other things with this license or with this identification and um one way then of defining me through is is through that you see my interactions uh with a state and a state that's located in in the United States okay just like all of you I also made the decision to uh go to a university uh I think this is the only ID that I have from from college um or at least photo of an ID that I have from college but um here I'm being defined through um the arena of education and um you know specifically as a college student and there's a variety of definitions that that go along with that while you're in college we can be defined by Major we can defined by the year you are in college um you can get defined by various types of uh academic performances and um to talk about myself I can talk about not only where I was born um and the way I interacted with um various State departments but also um I would tell part of my story was would be through education and to become someone who eventually would teach ass Sociology class uh it would become as no surprise that I was a college student that once majored in sociology the education system has other ways of of defining students um we can be undergraduate students as I was in the previous slide uh or post-graduate students and uh many of you will make the decision to go to graduate school and therefore be defined as a as a postgraduate and going through uh a program of either undergraduate study or or or postgraduate study uh you can be defined then as a a graduate and others would be defined then also as a as alumni and uh here I am at universities in Ireland I uh on the left there at University College Dublin and looks like I hadn't seen the sun in a while and then uh on the right that's me in uh in Trinity uh the one on the left is for a master's degree and then the one on the right is for a doctoral degree um but through that those are uh ways of of defining uh you know my my path through education and you can see then through those years um there's quite a lot of influence then an interaction between uh myself and uh the area of education and um You can compare that to others that uh do different paths that uh might have uh other areas or Arenas of of social life that they interact with more so than me some people choose a path to be uh more involved with certain areas of the economy or paths that are involved more with um religion or family and so forth uh and uh others different balances of each and so uh certainly though one of the ways that I thought I would Define myself as someone who's who's teaching a class is this is part of the path uh that I took to be uh the person that's teaching a Introduction to Sociology class uh at sha State I had mentioned that uh I was born in in New York City and that uh I spent a lot of my childhood in uh New Jersey and and uh that's one way of of being defined through a state is through something like a licensed driver a resident of a state and so forth but we also know we have definitions in the political Arena uh that reference citizenship and um being defined that way certainly uh influences the experience of a self and the way that a self is defined and um and we see that with not just in the United States but uh also in other countries um you know I happen to be a dual citizen there's a photo of me there in my uh in an older uh US passport and that's a my Irish passport on on the right we know that um ways in which a self is constructed is certainly through a political Arena and uh one of the ways we see in modern society that um a self is defined is through a citizenship status I talk a bit about politics in a few of these slides and I talk about it generally in in class um Politics as an arena of modern society and there's also different ways you can be defined uh through a political lens and here I am being defined uh through the term candidate when I was running for an office many years ago it look like I I mean business so much so I don't smile and so um there we can see that in this uh definition of being a candidate within the arena of politics uh in representative democra democracy uh people will uh run for an office to represent people to be a representative and in that overall ritual in that entire process you will have candidates that are uh running for different offices and then people vote someone in to or or a group in to uh represent their ideas at a legislative level and that that that term candidate uh references that that overall process and so then individuals have the ability to one be a candidate and two to decide uh which candidate to to vote for okay it's interesting to see me age through these slides but here I am now as an elected representative um a few years later and uh again this uh is agency within the arena of politics uh of course there's a variety of the ways that uh we see people interact with politics um in this case it's um you know running for an office and uh becoming elected and then uh being active in that office um and again there's a variety of other Arenas think about in social life uh that people become involved with um thus far I've talked about things like education um politics um but others have chosen careers in say uh the military others have gone into uh different parts of the economy and pursued uh different types of jobs and um are defined differently within those jobs and careers um and um so some of these ways of defining myself you see that I I would talk about these experiences uh in these uh different areas of of modern society and so to Define myself I have to include uh these discussions of what I've done in these different Arenas or what I've decided to do and then you could also look at what I've decided not to do um but it would be similar to you telling your story in your sociological profile uh what things you've done what actions you've taken uh within different Arenas of social life okay I think this is the the the last one of me um so the to understand then how I've made that journey into uh from student into um teaching an Introduction to Sociology class uh one of the things we can see with um different spaces in in social life is how at times they connect with one another and so on the one hand you can say that um you know I'm involved in education and um in higher education I'm a a professor at shauny State University and in that role I I teach a variety of courses in sociology and at the same time we can say well that's a a job or a career and um I trade my labor for for a paycheck to do that and um there you see then a connection with both uh education and the economy uh here you see um the difference between me on the left uh as a lecturer but also a grad student and then uh me more recently here the left it's a um scene from a a document BBC documentary that was shot in Dublin Ireland and then um here I am on the right after uh being in in in Portsmouth for a few years and teaching at at shy state so after we've compiled this information and summarized our experiences in our own lives how can we relate this to what cite Mills was writing about in his work on the sociological imagination and one of the things that Mills does tell us is his view that in modern society a lot of the a lot of people just can't connect their own uh personal experiences uh with more structural influences and so if for example I have un individual frustration with part of my job um sometimes we lose sight of um this could be a something that's part of a larger social Trend and that uh others are are experiencing that that challenge as well and so at times we we isolate our our issues and we take them all on ourselves and we think about it only as something that the individual is experiencing uh when in fact uh they connect in in in different ways to the totality of society at that time and so just because uh I might have uh challenges with um maybe new forms of grading or uh new things on the job at uh a university um it doesn't mean no one else doesn't in fact it's quite the opposite it's it's likely experience by others and the same is true for students students might find that textbook prices are outrageous which they are students might find that textbooks are are are not the best ways to read about a subject which they aren't uh or you might find challenges with things like taking on student debt or Rising tuition costs or all these other things and it's not just you as an individual that is experiencing those challenges uh what we see in using a sociological imagination is we connect those um personal uh challenges uh with what's going on with the overall organization of social relations at that time uh we can see what influences those personal challenges and then we can also see how um those challenges can be remedied uh with changes in the ways in which uh social relations are organized cite Mills talks about uh the fruits of the sociological imagin ation and uh one of them is in understanding our um overall location in society and this can relate to everything from uh race ethnicity gender sexuality uh socioeconomic position uh and so forth and uh in that we start to learn that um our experiences are shaped by a variety of the ways uh in which society influences us uh there are others that are similar to us that um have similar experiences um in some ways that challenges Notions of being a completely unique uh snowflake um but at the same time uh it uh is quite encouraging we can see in understanding our location within the organization of social relations at the time we have a much more deeper uh and profound understanding of our life experiences so there is times where there's some push back about being completely original and completely unique and so forth um but at the same time we have a much more thoroughly understood uh view of who our self is what our experiences um what are influencing our experiences what um what are ways that what are arenas that we can act in and under what terms and so forth and so it provides a much more deeper understanding of of Life Experiences Mills goes on to talk about how the sociological imagination uh really encourages us to understand the historical contingency of our own experiences and um by that what I would emphasize students to think about is that um the society that we're currently experiencing has um developed over time and there's been a variety of influences on it uh whether we're talking about the society we live in here in in Portsmith Ohio in the United States of America or if we um talk about uh the experiences of someone in another Society uh we know that things uh change in different directions over over time and that history does not move in a linear path and so uh by understanding the way in which a society evolves over time uh we know that there's certain roles that we all occupy and there's nothing inevitable about that uh we know there contingent upon uh a number of factors and uh we see that exchange at a structural level between different Arenas of a society uh but we also see that between individual agency and social structures and so um with that we know that we can make uh various contributions to the the direction of society and um the sociological imagination is is really emphasizing the um historical development over time of uh the way in which social relations are organized and the type of society uh that's provided uh and also though um that that exchange between individuals and social structures we see that social change is taking place uh not over some inevitable result or something that's completely out of the hands of people that are within a society but we see that change takes place when individuals uh work together to to change that society and that we can see that in a variety of different directions uh at various points of of human history Mills identifies three critical questions that social theorists ask uh when looking at or studying a society and these are theorists that use quality of the sociological imagination of looking at that interplay between uh individual agency and social structure but also the changing formations and dynamics of how social relations are organized so we can look at how is society organized at a whole what's the logic uh behind its formation if we were to look at uh American society in in 20124 we can ask ourselves what are um some of the major structural influences of society uh at this time and uh we can look at it in comparison to other societies that currently exist today uh we can also look at how has it changed over time and um we can look at what are some of the agreements and disagreements uh between different uh Arenas of social life in America today so what are some of the agreements and disagreements uh between the area of education and that of the economy and that of religion and that of family and so forth uh to understand your own experiences through education uh you could look at well what are times where you can see that there's agreements that are between different areas of society and where there areas of of disagreement and we can see that's changed over time and we can be certain that uh there will be changes that take place into the future one of the ways that we can uh look at uh a society is to see well how is it currently organized and under uh the logic of what conditions a second critical question identified by Mills is uh locating the society in in human history and um where does this stand the one that we're studying we're studying say um American society in 2024 uh where does this stand in human history and to um explore that question and to have u a deeper understanding of American society in 2024 we have to ask questions as to where it's come from how does it compare um to uh past developments in human history uh what are some of the things that have created changes over time uh to American society where do we see it uh stand today what are some of the things that would uh that would say that uh what were some of the things that the the uh in 2024 are some of the essential features of not only American society um but other societies that exist uh around the planet and there we can see agreements and disagreements about um the way in which uh societies get on with one another uh we can see uh similarities and differences internally within each one um but in understanding the society that we're studying in the present uh Mills very much emphasizes to uh the the understanding of its uh historical Journey how it's developed uh throughout time a third critical question turns to the individuals within a society uh that we're studying and um one thing we can look at is um who are the types of individuals that um that Prevail in in in the society at this time um who are the individuals that wield more power than others um and specifically under what circumstances and conditions do they do that uh is it certain areas of the economy that provide certain individuals with power and Status uh do they get that from certain uh aspects of education do they get that through certain aspects uh of religion and uh what does that say about the society at the time uh that we're studying that certain types of individuals um enjoy certain types of status or or power and with that we can see that this this idea of how a society develops in earlier questions is contingent on a number of factors and there's nothing quote unquote inevitable or or natural about that development and the same is true of the the individuals that may find success or Prevail or have power or status in a given Society uh one of the things he calls attention to is that the pathways to status and power Prestige and so forth uh is dependent upon the organization of social relations of the society at that time uh in certain moments in human history uh there are certain Arenas where there was more power or influence over the rest of society and in that the way that social relations were organized there were certain types of individuals that um enjoyed more status or or Prestige and so forth and and um we can see that within changes of in different areas of society um specifically what I mean by that is if you look at say the economy in the United States um if we compared the 18th century uh to the 19th century to the 20th century and so forth um the economy has changed over time and it has focused on different forms of of production or different forms of uh goods or services and with those changes we see that there's there's been uh different types of individuals that have had Prestige or or status or power at that time whatever time we're studying and that has changed over time just as uh those structural circumstances of the economy has changed so too has the individuals that or the types of individuals um that have gained Prestige or Prevail in the society that we're that we're studying okay to conclude the discussion of the sociological imagination by Mills uh we can look at uh his Focus on troubles and issues and here again we see this interplay between individual experiences and agency and social structural issues and to understand um various types of uh challenges people have in their in their individual lives it's first important to have a deeper understanding of the social structure at that time Mills describes troubles and the individual framework or more of a biographical sense uh he States 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 oneself and with those limited areas of social life of which one is directly and personally aware and we can look at a variety of things that uh we may have to experience in our day-to-day lives which seem like individual troubles uh whether it's um things to do with personal finances whether it's things to do with personal uh relations uh whether it's things to do with the balance of work life balance um struggles with education struggles with uh the economy times struggles in families and um struggles about just experiencing daily life moving about it um finding parking so forth um all of those things can be something that people experience at different times um and um these are things that often we try to address in an individual sense and uh trying to understand the workings of of the society in which is happening in uh would require connecting those personal troubles uh to more structural issues Mills concludes by uh emphasizing the need to take uh personal or individual troubles and Link them to uh publish public issues uh that exist at a more um structural level this can relate everything from a high school student being bullied in their daily life for different reasons uh and linking that to structural issues of society at the time it could link to somebody having certain issues in their family uh and looking at the uh current influences on family formations in the society at that time we could also look at uh somebody that's really annoyed with their job uh personal relations with a manager or with uh an employer or boss uh and how that that links to the structure of the economy at that time we could look at things such as the wages that are being received and uh the cost of living at that time and the pressures that an individual can have well that should be linked to the way in which um economic production is is organized at that time we could look at um a variety of experiences in education uh where some would find that it's um more challenging or it could be fun or if we organize it a different way and uh we could link that to uh structural issues at the time and so really to understand this makeup of um social relations Mills is emphasizing this connection of individual experiences an individual agency uh with the historical development of social relations of the society at the time and the existing agreements and disagreements um that are involved in the in the current organization of social relations and say something like America in 2024 and so uh one of the ways that we truly should understand I think um the usefulness of the sociological imagination is really to do what we've done as a class uh I've done it with with part of my uh life experiences to Define myself um and you've done that as well with writing your own sociological profile there you're starting to get a more structural understanding um of the development and the experience and the definition of yourself uh and it gives you a better understanding of yourself of your individual experiences and so forth um but also as we move forward we'll start talking about these structural uh factors and influences um that have had an effect on yourself and we can also look at what are the things that we participate in that move Society in One Direction or another whether we're reproducing certain um situations or or uh circumstances or we're revising them or challenging them in different ways and so an important thing to take away in my view of both writing your sociological profile and of reading more about a sociological imagination is that we do have agency and that we are participants in society today and far too often we're discouraged from thinking that and we're discouraged from thinking that we have any meaningful contribution or providing anything of value when that simply isn't the case and I think that's one of the most rewarding aspects of a of the sociological imagination and I hope it's one of the things that you take away uh when you finish this course