The Sociological Imagination is, according to Mills, the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.

By understanding SI, we can gain an appreciation for approaching problems that we encounter from a sociological perspective.  In the past, when I required research papers from my students in Sociology (aren't you glad that is in the past!?) this was a difficult concept to teach.

It is clear to see that we can look at many issues in this manner and by doing so we practice our Sociological Imaginations!

As we make our way through this course we will be further challenged not only exercise an SI in terms of our own society, but from a global perspective.  We will be examining social life her in the US through this course, but we will also consider social life in other countries.  Our lives are truly global if you consider the political unrest, terrorism and the global marketplace issues of today.

We will exercise our ability to see a relationship between every day experience and the entire global scene!

I'll give you an example:

Consider the purchase of a new car.  Certainly this is a personal decision, but we must face that even if it says Dodge on the front of it, many of the components for the car came from many other countries.  Some of those countries may still have child labor, for instance.  We might be at war with some of them.  Who knows these days!

Now I buy the car because, in this culture, I have been show this car 1000 times through advertising and the web.  I'm an educated consumer because I do web based research before I buy, but I'm still struck by it's sleek lines and color (good engineering).

The gas I will put into the car rarely comes from the US.  The gas I use is refined by the oil we get from OPEC members, so I am participating in the global marketplace.  Changes in any of the countries that supply the parts and labor for my car will affect the price of the car and the gas.

We see expressions of global culture, marketplace, politics and economics in almost everything we do.

Consider your own purchases, your job, your day-to-day activities from a global SI perspective and you will appreciate how interdependent we have all become.