ABSTRACT

The concern of C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination is as relevant today as when it was raised first almost fifty years ago. Global economic processes, environmental disasters, terrorism, insecurity at work and the geo-politics of conflict have heightened our sense of uncertainty and of being trapped by forces we know little about and which seem beyond our control. The answer that C. Wright Mills proposed to address this problem was the ‘the sociological imagination’, which would enable its possessor to make sense of their personal biographies in the context of larger historical events. The essential quality of mind it requires is the capacity to connect ‘personal troubles’ with ‘public issues’ and to understand the relationship between the two. This is the task and promise of the sociological imagination. It cannot be expected, however, that this outlook will occur spontaneously. People have to learn the connections between their everyday lives and wider public issues.