SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edmund Husserl, The Sociological Imagination, Lifeworld

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1101
• Professor: Joseph Sawan

Document Summary

This core sociological concept refers to the practice of being able to link personal trouble to larger public issues. Mills argues that the sociological imagination is particularly helpful at times of great social disruption, such as the great depression. The sociological imagination draws attention to how different perspectives or standpoints influence our understanding of the world: researchers must consider differing value systems. The sociological imagination means understanding that the (cid:862)objective knowledge(cid:863) of science is still influenced by the subjective value systems of the researcher. The (cid:858)i(cid:373)agi(cid:374)atio(cid:374)(cid:859) (cid:862)the so(cid:272)iologi(cid:272)al i(cid:373)agi(cid:374)atio(cid:374) e(cid:374)a(cid:271)les its possessor to understand the larger historical sense in ter(cid:373)s of its (cid:373)ea(cid:374)i(cid:374)g for the i(cid:374)(cid:374)er life a(cid:374)d the e(cid:454)ter(cid:374)al (cid:272)areer of a (cid:448)ariet(cid:455) of i(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals(cid:863) (cid:894)mills: 2) In many ways it is a terri(cid:271)le lesso(cid:374); i(cid:374) (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:455) (cid:449)a(cid:455)s a (cid:373)ag(cid:374)ifi(cid:272)e(cid:374)t o(cid:374)e. (cid:863) (cid:894)i(cid:271)id. (cid:895) The personal troubles of milieu and the public issues of social structure.