Social Imagination: A Sociological Analysis

Social imagination is basically taking a look at something and kind of thinking outside the box. It is almost like analyzing a certain decision, action or idea for instance and digging deeper into the why’s or what’s of the situation. As we read in the text “thinking like a sociologist means making the familiar strange”.

Social imagination can be used to look at things in our lives that we take for granted. We don’t delve deep and generate information about it or look at it from different angles. We just go on like a routine or robot with blinders and realize what’s around us or within us. An example of this was explained perfectly in an article I read about Social Imagination. It stated “An analogy can help us better understand what Mills meant by the sociological imagination. Think of a fish swimming in the ocean. That fish is surrounded by water, but the water is so familiar and commonplace to the fish that, if asked to describe its situation, the fish could hardly be expected to describe the water as well. Similarly, we all live in a social milieu, but because we are so intimately familiar with it, we cannot easily study it objectively. The sociological imagination takes the metaphorical fish out of the water. It allows us to look on ourselves and our social surroundings in a reflective way and to question the things we have always taken for …show more content…
One of those things is to try and step outside of their comfort zone and put themselves in the shoes or place of those around them. Stop and take a look of the things that go on around them every day that they walk past and don’t even blink an eye or a thought at. Maybe what drives the behavior of those around us. What is affecting them to be in a bad mood or a good mood. The more we stop and look at the little things around us and try to gain as much knowledge and information about it we will have an easier time the more we do