Assignment:
1).What does Mills mean by the "sociological imagination"?
A). Identify a private trouble or personal issue you are aware of, have experienced, or are experiencing. (For example, difficulty in getting a job, healthcare, childcare, divorce, rising cost of housing, rising cost of education.)
B). Discuss how the issue you identified above might actually be a larger public issue. Identify what the larger public issue might be.
C). Identify what some of the consequences or implications of this larger social issue might be for society. I.E. How will society be affected?
D). Using your sociological imagination give at least two ways of dealing with this issue at a macro level and two at the micro level. What is the difference in how one might deal with a problem if one views it from a micro perspective (personal trouble) v. a macro perspective (public issue)?
E). What prevents society from seeing this as a broader social issue?
2). Did you understand that Miner was describing the "American" ("Nacirema" spelled backwards)? Why do we not recognize this right away? What do we gain from being able to "step back" from our way of life as Miner has done? Think in terms of ethnocentrism. Identify the positive and negative aspects of ethnocentrism. How does sociology allow us to step back from our lives? What new insights do we get from being able to do this?
3). Discuss Emile Durkheim's investigation of suicide rates and how his research contributed to the development of theory. What is theory and why is it important? What did his research show us?