Introducing Sociology

Mills said that when we develop a sociological imagination we begin to see how wider social forces connect with our personal biographies. For Mills, the sociological imagination is particularly powerful when we identify the society we live in, rather any personal or individual failings, as responsible for many of our problems.

Enlightenment, an age of unprecedented intellectual advance and political awakening in the 18th century.

late 18th and early 19th centuries.

pick up the rules of the theatre and our prescribed parts as actors,

typically contain forms of inequality, stratification and discrimination, and this is not natural.

concerned with making the public into more engaged citizens

MANY PERSONAL TROUBLES CANNOT BE SOLVED MERELY AS TROUBLES, BUT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF PUBLIC ISSUES

challenging the myth that human behaviour is purely individualistic or driven by biological impulses

sociology as helping to “unmask domination”

Bourdieu explains that “sociology is a martial art”.