Sociology 2271A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: The Sociological Imagination, The Power Elite, Elite
26 Feb 2015
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Mills and the power elite: c. wright mills and the sociological imagination. Critic of power structures, elites, intellectuals in 1950s, his intellectual heyday. Understand relations between history of a society, biographies of actors in social structure. Active imagination + reason + info vs. techicians. Clear understandings of the way society works. Don"t bureaucratize research, reason - show how reason operates in human affairs. Be politically critical (democratic reason): alienation and bureaucracy. Loss of traditional values and self-esteem creates a status panic you don"t really know your purpose. Salespeople sell personalities like commodities: alienated from selves. Salespeople often sell themselves just like commodities i. e. selling themselves like selling a hamburger at mcdonalds alienation from yourself. Always tense because you are always trying to entertain yourself and have a good time: the mass media. Forms of communication & media between material life and consciousness. Class consciousness comes from our experiences and the media. Media help to shape our view of self.
