Sociological Imagination

According to C. Wright Mills' a man's behaviour in life; which is considered his 'biography'; is conditioned or embodied in History. He refers to how individuals play a part in society and how they can have an impact on history. An individual's biography can change or contribute to a historical event, which in its self will have an impact on the society that they live in. Mill's successfully shows through the use of the Sociological Imagination how the relationship between history and biography play an important role within society.

Common sense on the other hand is the ideas that people have been brought up in society to understand as being common knowledge. Common sense can be defined as a natural understanding in a society. It is the information that a person has learnt from society as they have been socialised. Common sense statements can be stereotypical and are not always correct. Common sense could be described as a gut-level reaction based on what you learned growing up.

Sociology questions common sense as it is merely assumed information and is not always true, in some cases, the exact opposite. Many ideas that people believed to be true have been proven wrong when sociologists have used detailed research and the sociological imagination. Sociologists base their ideas on evidence rather than on simple assumption, and to do this their theories must be analysed and tested unlike common sense which is just known information. Common sense is not necessarily wrong, but it tends to reinforce, rather than challenge the existing scheme of things like the sociological imagination. Both approaches have a different perspective and I will discuss this through the example of racism.

Racism has historically been defined as the belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities that a certain race is inherently superior or inferior to others, and/or those individuals should be treated differently according to their racial designation. Sometimes racism means beliefs, practices and institutions that discriminate against people based on their perceived beliefs.

"It is the matter of behaviour, usually a manifestation of hatred or contempt for individuals who have well-defined physical characters different from our own." (J Oliver C. Cox)

The Sociological Imagination would look out where racism came from and how historically people were judged on the colour of their skin due to events such as the Slave Trade and World War 2. The sociological imagination would consider this as C. Wright Mills' believed that society today is affected by the events in our past societies. For example, although racism still exists in society today it does not exist to the same large extent that it did in the past. Would racism still exist to the same extent if it weren't for the key features that happened in history such as the abolishment of slavery? Or would racism still exist in today's society if the slave trade had never existed? These events in history have created racist views and then abolished these views and have affected the society we live in today.

"Racial exploitation and race prejudice developed among Europeans with the rise of capitalism and nationalism ..." (Tzvetan Todrov.)

This is an example of racism being affected by history. Although history plays a huge part in racism in the UK, Mills' would also take into account the individuals living in society today. He talks about how an individual's biography can play a part in society and how they can have an impact on history. An example of this would be Adolf Hitler; the leader of the Nazi party; who discriminated against the Jews as well as other people including the mentally and physically disabled and had over 6 million of them killed during World War Two.

"The Jews are definitely a race, but they are not human." (Adolf Hitler)

Adolf Hitler is an example of an individual's view which changed society not only in his own country, but all over the world including the UK. Although Hitler's view was not supported by the United Kingdom many innocent British soldiers and citizens were killed. The way we lived in our society in the UK had to change. Food had to be rationalized and precautions had to be taken including the blackout, gasmasks had to be carried at all times, bomb shelters were built and children were sent to live in the countryside for their safety; splitting families up.

The UK as a country does not encourage racism and have many laws and policies in place to stop racism but it still exists, whether this is an individual being targeted because of their race or the colour of their skin or whether it's a problem within a particular society in the UK. The sociological imagination shows how history and biography together are a cause of racism in the UK and how they affect racism in the UK.

Unlike the Sociological Imagination, common sense does not look at the facts and evidence behind racism and does not back up its theories. Common sense explanations are just taken for granted and can be said without actually thinking about the reality of the statement. For example the British National Party wants to make Britain more "British" by deporting all the illegal immigrants, turning away asylum seekers and paying legal immigrants grants to return to their own countries.

"We accept that Britain always will have ethnic minorities and have no problem with this as long as they remain minorities and do not change nor seek to change the fundamental culture and identity of the indigenous peoples of the British Isles."(BNP)

The statements being made by BNP are common sense statements and are also racist statements as they believe that because these people are from a different background or race that they don't belong in Britain. They fail to look at these individual's backgrounds and reasons for moving to the UK. They also fail to look at British history and how it wasn't always people born and bred in Britain that lived here. Unlike the sociological imagination these common sense statements have no real evidence to back them up and do not take into account history and biography.

The sociological imagination and common sense both have different ways of explaining racism as the Sociological Imagination looks at the details that may cause racism including history and the individual's role in society as well as their biography compared to common sense explanations that are just "common knowledge" and provide no real evidence as they are just views that the individual has been brought up in society learning.

Through the use of Mills' "The Promise" the Sociological Imagination shows how every individual plays a part in the society, how history plays a part in society and how the society has an influence on both the individual and history. It also helps distinguish personal issues from problems in society. Common sense explanations differ from the sociological imagination as it does not use the same theoretical approach as the sociological imagination does. It simply generalises issues without backing them up by analysing its theories. Common sense is just common knowledge that everyone in the society should have but does not always identify the truth unlike the sociological imagination. Both approaches differ when explaining issues and both have a different perspective on these issues. I have explained both these approaches and shown how they differ from one another through the example of racism in the UK.

REFERENCES

C Wright Mills, (1959), The Sociological Imagination, 'The Promise', Chapter 1

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BNP, 2010 "Immigration", BNP Website [online] available at http://bnp.org.uk/policies/immigration

Back, L. and Solomos (eds), J Oliver C. Cox. (2000). Race Relations. Theories of Race and Racism A Reader. 2 (1), p71-78. London: Routledge.

Back, L. and Solomos (eds), J Tzvetan Todrov. (2000). Race and Racism. Theories of Race and Racism A Reader. 2 (1), p65-70. London: Routledge.

"Biography for Adolf Hitler", imdb Website [online] available at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0386944/bio

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