ABSTRACT
It is my great privilege to introduce the work of C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), the American sociologist who reminds us that the problems which social work often confronts as personal problems (as failings in the individual, their upbringing or their personality) are in fact social problems; their remedies lie in society, and not within individuals or even within families. This is a message which should be remembered throughout social work practice, as we work with individuals and families who are struggling to deal with the impact of poverty, poor housing, educational disadvantage, social exclusion and discrimination of all kinds. The Sociological Imagination has been hugely influential on the thinking of generations of sociologists, feminists, radicals, policy-makers and, of course, social workers. The chosen extract is from the first chapter in the book.
From The Sociological Imagination, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1959): 8–11.
