Exploring Sociological Imagination: Journal Writing and Connections in Society

1. September 7th • Attendance & Questions • SL forms • Lecture One – Sociological Imagination • Exercise: Using the Sociological Imagination in Our Lives • Homework: • Glassner, Barry The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, Introduction (CR)

2. The Sociological Imagination Lecture One

3. Journal Writing Guidelines: • Focus on explaining ideas, events, feelings • Tell me why you feel/respond/behave the way you do • Don’t use “mushy” words/phrases • “It makes me sad…” • Explore the things that make you feel uncomfortable • Be thoughtful and honest…make the most of the opportunity to reflect on your life and the world around you

4. Journal Entry #1 • What is the sociological imagination? Explain. • According to Mills, why do we want to have a sociological imagination? • Do you ever feel indifferent (apathy)? About what things? Why or why not? Explain. • Do you currently feel an uneasiness (anxiety) about issues in your own community? If so, what are they? Explain why?

5. Coming Down from the Ivory Tower • Public Sociology: connecting sociological study with civil society • Social justice • Human rights • Economic, cultural, and political equality • "I try to be objective. I do not claim to be detached." - C. Wright Mills

6. The Origins of Sociology • The sociological discipline emerged at the end of the 19th C as a response to the dramatically changing world • Scientific Revolution • Democratic Revolution • Industrial Revolution • Sociology emerged to solve the social puzzles of the industrial and modern era

7. According to Mills, what is the PROMISE of sociology? The task of sociology is to… • To turn indifference (apathy) and uneasiness (anxiety) into well-being • But, how does sociology do that?

8. C Wright Mills: Sociological Imagination • A quality of mind that allows us to connect: “Personal troubles of the milieux” (biography) with “Public issues of social structure” (history) • Examining these relationships gives us the knowledge to understand society, our place in it, and the ability to make changes

9. HIV/AIDS Globally

10. Understanding and Explaining HIV/AIDS • Cultural Explanations • Virility is strongly linked to masculinity in many cultures affected by HIV/AIDS • Low status of women • Social Structure Explanations • Global poverty and inequality create low immune systems • Underdevelopment limits economic opportunities • Political Explanations • Lack of adequate health care and access to treatment • Political policies that do not address the issue • Individual Explanations • Lack of education and poor choices

11. Relating Issues and Troubles “The first fruit of this imagination – and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it – is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances.”

12. Exercise: Using the Sociological Imagination in Our Lives