The Sociological Imagination And Me
The Sociological Imagination is a way for someone to observe their life as a result of their interactions with society. The Sociological Imagination explains why a person’s life is lived the way it is lived and all the events, decisions, successes and failures that have occurred in that person’s time. There are three primary factors of the Sociological Imagination such as history, biography and social structure. In correlation with C. Wright Mills’ hypothesis of the sociological imagination as the “vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society” (Mills 1959), humans will be able to position themselves in reality and develop an enhanced understanding of themselves and others through connections between personal experiences, as well as structural and historical forces like gender, class and race.
In this essay, I will use my own personal experiences as a case study and the concept of the sociological imagination as a tool for critical examination in an attempt to link personal experiences to public issues that society faces.
As a first year university student, I believe that in order to be successful, you need to acquire sociological imagination. How often do we sit in classes listening to a lecture and wonder what is the purpose of all of this? For some of us who graduate from high school, we only see as far as the first day of university and can’t see any other vision beyond that point in our future. Instead, some of us are simply looking to escape from our parent’s grasp and finally have a sense of freedom and self expression. For others they might be thinking about their life long career going a certain way, when they plan on getting married and having children, and some even see their retirement by the age of sixty. Personally, I find myself somewhere in the middle.
I was born into a Srilankan family and was raised as a Catholic my whole life. As a person who identifies as a Srilankan female, there comes many cultural boundaries and expectations that women are obliged to follow.
As a child, I had always known that my dream job was to become a writer from the time I picked up a pencil and we were able to start writing short stories in 3rd grade.
In highschool, I took all the courses I could in writing and participated in our school’s newspaper club where I could advocately write articles for the newspaper and get my volunteer hours at the same time. Upon graduation from high school, my parents told me that if I became a writer, I would not make a sustainable income. From the get go, they were right. Especially in the 21st century where there is technology available right at our fingertips, it is possible that the entertainment found in reading newspapers and reading books before bed time is sure to die out as people are now keeping up with news simply at the tap of an internet search on their phones, or would rather watch movies and videos online instead of reading the book version of it.
Looking at this culturally, it is fairly uncommon for a Srilankan female like me to pursue a career in any of the arts because there is a negative connotation with it that pursuing anything in that field will lead you to financial instability. I am living proof of this within my older female cousins as none of them are currently in a job or studying for a degree that has arts involved. It did not take long before I applied for university that I quickly realized that if I wanted to not work so hard for a minimal amount of income that I would need to obtain a degree in something that was much more practical and gives me time to write on the side. Therefore, I chose to major in nursing, something that was still focused on making money rather than be happy with what I was doing. I continue to pursue my passion for writing however in my many required elective classes. However, in order to please my parents, I feel subjected to do so.
My parents immigrated to Canada from Srilanka with the hopes of searching for a better life. At the time of their immigration, there was a civil war going on in their home country so they fled to Canada in hopes for a better life not just for themselves, but for their children as well. In fact, myself and my cousins’ parents have all immigrated to Canada for the same reason. I believe that for that reason alone and for others who parents have immigrated here for similar reasons, their children often sympathize for their parents by pursuing what is in their parents’ best interests and put their own interests behind them.
However, watch as I contradict this perspective with a spin off through history. Now I get most of my ancestral history from my parents. Apparently, when my mom was younger and her mother was still around, she had her own sewing shop and would sew blouses and skirts for traditional clothing for women. Her father would also play the maddalaya, a traditional Srilankan drum that he was paid to perform at for various weddings and religious ceremonies. Both of these jobs have led my grandparents to a financially stable lifestyle, that is, up until the point when they got married. My grandparents got married around the point in time when the industrial society took form. As factories and commercialization became a thing of the norm, the art-based jobs that my grandparents were doing could no longer fulfill a sustainable income for themselves and for their children, my mother included. As a result of this, my grandmother closed down her store to look after the kids while my grandfather went to work at a shoe factory, making just a little more than what he usually made from his previous job. My mom also guarantees that my grandfather was much happier pursuing a musical career rather than spending his time at a factory, but he sacrificed what he enjoyed doing in order to make ends meet.
This tells me that the sociological imagination moves on a time-line. Humans are obliged to adapt to societal changes regardless of some passions or dreams that you may have as it might not always work out realistically, or fit into societal norms. I believe that someone’s personal environment adapts to the social environment that surrounds them and those with a sociological imagination have the ability to understand why certain events occur. They also know how to apply their knowledge to current social problems. By doing this, those who possess the sociological imagination can better understand large groups or populations of people whether it be through cultural factors or historical events.
Through my analysis, I have found that in order to use my sociological imagination properly and see a need for change and adaptability, I needed to be oppressed or deprived in some way. Though it may not be on the same level, it was how both my parents and my grandparents realized that things could not remain the way that they were forever since if it did it would be detrimental for their survival
The way sociological imagination works in my life is by me having a vision of myself working as a writer in the future. Through reflecting on my life choices and chances with the use of the sociological imagination, I have been able to arrive at particular realizations. . The sociological imagination is valuable for allowing understanding of ourselves by means of the links between personal experiences versus structural and historical forces. If sociological imagination is about making a connection to historical events and my instincts for the life I want then I would have to say that I do not want to live a life that my parents and grandparents did.
Though I am grateful for what they have done for me, I do not want to restrict myself and my life’s goals by having a ‘sustainable’ job for the next 40 years that I am not one hundred percent interested in because I have a mortgage and a family to take care of. Instead, I would like to gain mobility and freedom and use what society has to offer, like technology, to assist me in having the life I envision. The sociological imagination promotes critical thinking skills. This allows me to be able to think of innovative connections between myself and the society.
However, whether it be a writer, or nurse or both, only the future will there where I end up. Just as long as I am happy.
