C. Wright Mills Quotes about Imagination

The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. This is its task and its promise.

The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. This is its task and its promise.

C. Wright Mills

Two, Imagination, Promise

C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Sociological Imagination”, p.6, Oxford University Press

It is the political task of the social scientist — as of any liberal educator — continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals. It is his task to display in his work — and, as an educator, in his life as well — this kind of sociological imagination. And it is his purpose to cultivate such habits of mind among the men and women who are publicly exposed to him. To secure these ends is to secure reason and individuality, and to make these the predominant values of a democratic society.

C. Wright Mills

Men, Issues, Imagination

C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Sociological Imagination”, p.187, Oxford University Press

What we experience in various and specific milieux, I have noted, is often caused by structural changes. Accordingly, to understand the changes of many personal milieux we are required to look beyond them. And the number and variety of such structural changes increase as the institutions within which we live become more embracing and more intricately connected with one another. To be aware of the idea of social structure and to use it with sensibility is to be capable of tracing such linkages among a great variety of milieux. To be able to do that is to possess the sociological imagination

C. Wright Mills

Ideas, Numbers, Imagination

C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Sociological Imagination”, p.10, Oxford University Press

C. Wright Mills Quotes about Imagination

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