Sociological imagination can be viewed as a way for people to see themselves from a different perspective away from the normal routine ways that people view their daily lives. As Mills define, sociological imagination is “the vivid awareness of the relationship between the experience and the wider society. It entails the individual’s ability to view things socially and how they interact with each other. Having sociological imagination requires a person to start thinking in alternative ways and match the individual and society (Halavais, 2015). Individual and society are two different concepts of society which need to be reconciled for one to achieve sociological imagination. There is a connection between the social structure and the experience of an individual which needs to be reconciled to avoid individual troubles. The application of sociological imagination takes various dimensions and can be applied to any behavior in human life. This paper examines the application of sociological imagination to my personal life experience by explaining the reasons why I returned to college.
Personal troubles entail the problems that individuals face within themselves and the various immediate relations with other people. According to Mills, human beings function as actors who make choices about their own lives and friends, education, work, and many other life activities as long as they remain under our control (Dannefer, Kelley-Moore & Huang, 2016). At the personal level, people have a great extent of control and can choose various issues. Deciding to return to school is, therefore, a personal choice that I made and of which I have some degree of control. Mills then relate this to the larger social issue which is beyond an individual’s control, and within which people must learn to live with. The exact application of social imagination lies on the need for us to differentiate between the social and the personal life levels. Upon making that difference, people can make decisions that they deem better within their personal control, given the major social forces that come from society.
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Using the sociological imagination theory, the first reason why I returned to college was due to the presence of scholarship from the employer. Considering various factors and the value of furthering education, I decided to go back to college as a personal decision that I deemed was best for me. I considered the value of furthering my studies and the benefits it will have on me in the future. I then considered one external factor, the presence of scholarship from my employer. I made this decision because I considered it beneficial and saw the necessity of taking the opportunity of the fund. Based on the sociological imagination theory, going back to college was the personal decision, which I reconciled with the larger social force, the societal effects of lack of education and the presence of scholarship to further my studies. Furthering my college education can provide me with the opportunity to rise higher in my career through job promotions and other career advancements.
The second reason why I went back to college was due to job security. The personal decision to go back to college is to ensure that I am more skilled and to make my job safer. I argue that going back to college will equip me with more skills to improve the quality of my services at the workplace. On the other side of the societal view, many people also need jobs, and they have advanced education. The societal pressure is that that without college or higher education, one’s job becomes at risk due to increased competition for jobs in the job market. The higher job competition and unemployment is a larger social issue which one must find ways to live with while also making the best decision. By reconciling the fact that education increases skills required for a job and that lack of higher education can put one’s job security at risk, I made this decision as to the best for me using the sociological imagination theory.
The third reason I went back to school was due to the location. With my personal experience about higher education being that it is beneficial, and taking the fact that the location of the school was well-placed for me to access, I considered it the best and most beneficial thing to do. A near school location will help me save time from home to school and will enable me to balance my work with family and education while at the same time increasing my knowledge and experience. This is in consideration with the societal force for the need to achieve further education and grow in my career path.
In conclusion, the application of the sociological imagination theory requires one to see a connection between the individual experience and the social structure. Reconciling the individual and society allows one to live with the societal forces while at the same time, making the best personal choice for life than can have benefits. Going back to college was a personal decision I made after I considered various benefits which include job security, location, and presence of scholarship, which I then reconciled with the societal forces that exist. The outcome can be beneficial decisions that are based on rational thinking and consideration of alternatives rather than sticking to a routine way of viewing things.
References
Halavais, A. (2015). Bigger sociological imaginations: Framing big social data theory and methods. Information, Communication & Society , 18 (5), 583-594.
Dannefer, D., Kelley-Moore, J., & Huang, W. (2016). Opening the social: Sociological imagination in life course studies. In Handbook of the life course (pp. 87-110). Springer, Cham.
