An Analysis On Charles Mills' Sociological Imagination
The first chapter of Charles Mills' Sociological Imagination tackles about correlating the human experience to the society. To expound, Mills says that the two must always work together; that the individual cannot progress just by thinking of himself alone. According to Mills, in instilling the main essence of cultivating the qualities of having this said ability, there are three questions to always ask yourself when you apply Sociological Imagination, the first is:
1) What is the structure of the society around you?
The first step is to identify the ways a social community is organized. Its government framework, the manner of practices and beliefs and several more factors.
2) What is the history and biography of the society?
The second step is to distinguish what factors in the past predominated in the said society. Major impacts of recorded historical accounts may have been manifested into long term effects in the present. Biography works together with history, for it portrays how history has affected the lives of humankind from past to present.
3) What are the characteristics and traits of the people in the society?
Lastly, it is important that we also pay attention to the kind of people produced by its society. Their instilled attitudes, judgement and personal beliefs can affect greatly in one's own thinking of himself.
Take this for example; The salary of a Filipino man. Why is it that despite having an average salary, a few of us Filipinos still seem unsatisfied with the amount of money we earn?
Applying the Sociological Imagination, we would first ask ourselves:
1) What is the structure of the Philippine Society?
The Philippines itself is listed under the 'Third World Countries' or the, 'developing countries'. By definition, we don't have the same rate of progress if we look at other countries, especially first world countries such as Japan, Canada, Germany and several other countries. And because these countries are the most developed, living in one of these countries would pay a lot for the individual and would be very beneficial and could even be more than enough for one Filipino worker. But, since not all of us can afford living in a first world country, we have yet to improve our own governance, economical standing and more factors in order to achieve the same rate of progress that these countries possess.
2) What is the history and biography of the Philippines?
In the Philippines, we have a lot of recorded historical events in which we have had major financial issues which are almost always plundered by our own government. As a result, we were really held from progress because of the grave mistakes done in the past. In present terms, the Philippines is ever so slowly, fluctuating in the process of development, because most cases still prevail in our country. There are still numerous cases of unjust actions, murder and kidnapping cases, vote-buying and EJKs, and many other factors. Most especially in salary wages. The average Filipino man only earns P8,000 as his lowest and P18,000 as his highest. In the extremes of this distribution, the lower class of the society, such as our farmers, unfortunately, does not even receive the minimum salary of P537 per day. How would a man live on P200-P300 for a day? And some of them even have families to sustain. Thinking of it, that's very unfair and ironic — if the government serves the people, then the most hardworking people, which we tend to disregard, such as our farmers, should receive more money than what they are currently earning. We have an inverted triangle system; in which the higher ups receive more money because of their social standing. In a country where plunder is morbidly common, how would we ever get the right salary which every Filipino deserves?
3) What are the characteristics and traits of the Filipino people?
It is most common for the Filipinos to work abroad and not serve their country first because one Filipino would always say that the salary is too low. Even in one Filipino family, there would always be one to ask you if you plan to go abroad. If Filipinos had started to serve our country first, our nurses, our engineers, our architects — their number would make a big impact on the development of our country. But since it had always been instilled in most Filipinos that the salary is higher in first world countries when converted in pesos, they went for the better option for themselves.
In conclusion, the Sociological Imagination is an efficient instrument in resolving social and personal issues. Because the two would always be correlated, it's like hitting two birds with one stone. If only we would always have and apply this understanding, many of our problems and issues would be easily resolved, hence paving a way to a developed society, which is the ultimate goal of the Sociological Imagination's promise.
References:
The Promise of Sociology Summary & Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2019, from https://schoolworkhelper.net/the-promise-of-sociology-summary-analysis/
What Is a Summary of 'The Promise' by C. Wright Mills? (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2019, from https://www.reference.com/art-literature/summary-promise-c-wright-mills-e6e541f5fd3c1db6
GradeSaver 'The Sociological Imagination Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis'. GradeSaver, 21 June 2019. Web. 21 June 2019.
