Columbia University. Sociology, he wrote, is an “imagination,” a way of seeing, a way
of “connecting biography to history.” What Mills means is that the sociological imag-
inationsees our lives as contextuallives—our individual identities are sensible only in
the social contexts—such as family, or our jobs, or our set of friends—in which we
find ourselves. A sociological perspective is a perspective that sees connections and con-
texts. Sociology connects individuals to the worlds in which we live. Stated most sim-
ply, sociologyis the study of human behavior in society.
Beyond Either/Or: Seeing Sociologically
To help orient you to the field of sociology, read again the quote that begins this chap-
ter. Now, take a look at your local daily newspaper or watch your local TV news.
Most of the time, they’re telling you how things are getting worse, much worse than
they’ve ever been. Crime waves threaten our safety; dramatic rises in teenage drink-
ing and drug use threaten the survival of the nation; and fundamentalist fanatics make
the entire world unsafe. We worry about the spiraling divorce rate, the rate of teen
pregnancies, the collapse of marriage. We worry about “new” diseases, like SARS;
of “old” diseases like smallpox being unleashed as weapons; about costs of prescrip-
tion medicines; and about the microbial dangers lurking in our food. We fret about
the collapse of morality, the decline in religion, the collapse of law and order. We’re
shocked, outraged, and often frightened when we hear of someone being pushed under
a train in a busy New York City subway station. Is the country falling apart?
Perhaps the opposite is true. We’re also equally bombarded with stories about
the enormous social changes that have made the world a smaller and smaller place,
where millions of people can communicate with one another in an instant. Dramatic
technological breakthroughs expand the possibilities for trade, cultural exchange, eco-
nomic development. Scientific advances make it possible to live longer, healthier lives
than any people who have ever lived. The mapping of the human genome may enable
scientists to eliminate many of the diseases that have plagued human beings for mil-
lennia while the rise of the Internet will enable us to communicate that knowledge in
a heartbeat. Americans are going to college in greater numbers, and today we have
women, African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and gay CEOs, corporate
board members, and business owners. Freedom and democracy have spread through-
out the world. Is society getting better and better?
Typically, we vacillate between these positions. Sometimes, when it suits us, as
when we are examining the behavior of other people, we say that things are getting
SOCIOLOGY AS A WAY OF SEEING 5DOONESBURY © 1981 G.B. Trudeau. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved.