A. What is sociological imagination?

B. How can using the sociological imagination give us the power to change the world? Give a suitable example.

A. What is sociological imagination?

The sociological imagination refers to a mental practice in which we are able to imagine ourselves as distant and separate from the routines of our daily lives. The objective of this is to be able to look our institutions with fresh and critical eyes. Therefore, a person that possesses this ability will be able to pull away from his own context and be able to imagine what alternative escenarios would look like.

B. How can using the sociological imagination give us the power to change the world? Give a suitable example.

One of the advantages of having a sociological imagination is that it allows us to better understand the connection between individual experience and the social reality. Therefore, we might be able to see social structures more clearly and how these impact on individual agency. For example, if we think of having no money as a personal experience, we might only feel ashamed. However, if we see poverty as a symptom of a larger structure, such as capitalism, then we are better able to think of alternatives that will create more just or egalitarian social structures.

Answers:

A. Sociological imagination is the practice of imagining and looking at life with a fresh, meaningful and unique view, and thinking outside the limits that most people in the society are used to.

B. Using sociological imagination can give us the power to change the world if we decide to think differently about how to handle situations than the way they are being handled; for example, we can use sociological imagination to devise and apply better ways of controlling or preventing improper disposal of various types of forms of waste in the environment, especially in developing nations; what we need to do is to shift our thinking or perspective away from what everybody has been used to thinking and doing, and look at it from a fresh and unique perspective that can inspire a social change.