ABSTRACT
Power is everywhere, in every social interaction between individuals, groups, and global actors, and is a critical element of study in many things encompassed by sociology. The sociological imagination, as taught in introductory sociology, connects people to essentially political themes: personal troubles, public issues, and the interplay between biography and social history. The troubles people hear about, for example, public education, unemployment, providing mental health services to war veterans, and terrorism all have a personal dimension, a human face, and very real biographies. Students studying power, politics, and society will find that insights developed thus far come from applications of the sociological imagination. These insights are typically conveyed through the use of metaphors and paradoxes. These are useful tools in sociological thinking. Capacity for action is distinct from capacity for obligation and duty.
