SOC 1 Chapter 1: SOC1 readings
Document Summary
People feel that their private lives are a series of traps. Need to understand both the life of an individual and the history of a society. Most don"t define the troubles they endure in terms of historical changes and institutional contradictions. The sociological imagination: enables its posessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals. Sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the 2 within society. Capacity to shift from one perspective to the other. Range from the most impersonal and remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self. Urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in the society and in the period in which she has her quality and her being. Understanding self and the intersections of biography and history within society.
