Table of Contents
Definition of Sociological Imagination
(noun) The use of imaginative thought to understand the connections between the forces of society and the personal lives of individuals; when history meets biography.
Example of Sociological Imagination
- Watching a documentary about Jazz, the Civil Rights Movement, or the history of baseball and putting yourself into the mindset of the time and place to better understand the lives of the people depicted in the film.
Etymology of Sociological Imagination
- Coined by C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) in The Sociological Imagination (1959).
Sociological Imagination Pronunciation
Syllabification: so·ci·o·log·i·cal i·mag·i·na·tion
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /soh-see-uh-lAHj-i-kuhl i-maj-uh-nAY-shuhn/
- British English – /soh-siuh-lOj-i-kuhl i-maj-i-nAY-shuhn/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˌsoʊsiəˈlɑʤɪkəl ɪˌmæʤəˈneɪʃən/
- British English – /ˌsəʊsɪəˈlɒʤɪk(ə)l ɪˌmæʤɪˈneɪʃən/
Usage Note
- Plural: sociological imaginations
Related Quotation
- “The sociological imagination allows us to identify the links between our personal lives and the larger social forces of life—to see that what is happening to us immediately is a minute point at which our personal lives and society intersect” (Hughes and Kroehler 2008:8).
Related Videos
https://youtu.be/bBbQ436XDCg
Additional Information
- Word origin of “sociological” and “imagination” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Aronowitz, Stanley. 2004. C. Wright Mills. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
- Gubrium, Jaber. 1993. Speaking of Life: Horizons of Meaning for Nursing Home Residents. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
- Horowitz, Irving Louis. 1983. C. Wright Mills: An American Utopian. New York: Free Press.
- Kerr, Keith. 2009. Postmodern Cowboy: C. Wright Mills and a New 21st Century Sociology. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
- Mills, C. Wright, and Irving Louis Horowitz. 1967. Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. London: Oxford University Press.
- Mills, C. Wright, and John Summers. 2008. The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Mills, C. Wright, Kathryn Mills, and Pamela Mills. 2000. C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Regush, Nicholas M. 1973. Visibles and Invisibles: A Primer for a New Sociological Imagination. Boston: Little, Brown.
- CWrightMills.org
- C. Wright Mills’ Sociology: rsu.edu
- Sociological imagination – Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: wikipedia.org
- The Sociological Imagination – Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: wikipedia.org
- The Sociological Imagination – An Overview of the Book by C. Wright Mills: about.com
Related Terms
Reference
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2008. Sociology: The Core. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Works Consulted
Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. 2007. Sociology: Your Compass for a New World. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Delaney, Tim, and Tim Madigan. 2015. The Sociology of Sports: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
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Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
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Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
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Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.
Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shepard, Jon M. 2010. Sociology. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.
Stewart, Paul, and Johan Zaaiman, eds. 2015. Sociology: A Concise South African Introduction. Cape Town: Juta.
Stolley, Kathy S. 2005. The Basics of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology. 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Tischler, Henry L. 2011. Introduction to Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Cite the Definition of Sociological Imagination
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “sociological imagination.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 24, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/sociological-imagination/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
sociological imagination. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/sociological-imagination/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “sociological imagination.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/sociological-imagination/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“sociological imagination.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/sociological-imagination/>.