Introductions - The Sociological Imagination

Question 1

Who created the Sociological Imagination

Answer 1

C.W. Mills (2000)

Question 2

What is Sociological Imagination used for

Answer 2

Helps scholars understand the complexity of our social worlds

Question 3

Sociological Imagination

Answer 3

An ability to see the context which shapes an individual’s decision making, as well as the decision made by others.

Question 4

Sociological Imagination and Explanations

Answer 4

Helps develop reasonable explanations, by moving away from common sense and making it not make sense

Question 5

Sociological Imagination and One’s Position Within the World

Answer 5

Enables us to situate ourselves within the world, by deconstructing our experiences, interactions and relationships, using the problems of biography [self], of history and of our intersections within a society. It helps us understand that there are different social worlds and each has different components, expectations, experiences, interactions, “common sense”, etc.

Question 6

Sociological Imagination and Others’ Positions Within the World

Answer 6

Enables us to situate others within the world and grasp why and what others do, while also anchoring it to historical constraints, such as time, place, cultural phenomena, etc.

Question 7

Main Question #1

Answer 7

What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What are its essential components and how do they relate? How does this differ from other varieties of social order? Within it, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and for its change?

Question 8

Main Question #2

Answer 8

Where does this society stand in human history? What are the mechanics by which it is changing? What is its place within and its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole?

Question 9

Main Question #3

Answer 9

Who are the people in a society, how do they interact, function, contribute to the development of the society that made them, how do they compare to each other within a society and between societies?

Question 10

Another word for structures

Answer 10

Institutions (religion, government, family, media, etc.)

Question 11

What are mechanisms

Answer 11

Entities and aligned activities that affect social behaviour and change and are built from social institutions and change. Helps to investigate social control, role and change

Question 12

Agency

Answer 12

One has the agency to choose what one does and on top of having a free will to choose, also an ability to take responsibility for one’s choices

Question 13

Micro Level of Analysis

Answer 13

• More specific to the individual
• Ways individuals negotiate and compensate during interactions with their environment and other organisms

Question 14

Meso Level of Analysis

Answer 14

• It is a between or a medium system
• Happens within specific groups, communities or institutions in specific parts of society (within political parties, ethnicities, communities, universities, etc.)

Question 15

Macro Level of Analysis

Answer 15

• As a whole
• Social systems, institutions, hierarchies and patterns shape the way we behave, react & think

Question 16

First element of analyzing sociological imagination

Answer 16

• We seek to find the inter-connection between personal experiences and large social forces (social movements). We examine the connections between biography and history - how we connect ourselves to society through time

Question 17

Second element of analyzing sociological imagination

Answer 17

How do we or can we identify the social forces that impact us as individuals to create social action, when individuals are exposed to external forces, which continually modify behaviour. It is the process of seeing something happening and wondering why it is happening. Looks into how power or structure changes us overtime and questions how it elicits this change.

Question 18

Troubles

Answer 18

Private; personal values that are threatened

Question 19

Issues

Answer 19

Public; transcends our personal orbit and are recognized as structural or are institutionalized

Question 20

Troubles vs Issues

Answer 20

• The trouble of being unemployed can lead to questions of why that person is unemployed (laziness, depression, etc.)
• The issue of being unemployed means there is a large proportion of unemployment, otherwise known as mass unemployment, which has less to do with morality and more to do with the social world. Someone who is part of this mass problem will be seen as being in an impossible situation

Question 21

Willis’ Five Questions (2004)

Answer 21

1. What is happening?
2. Why is it happening and why is it important?
3. What are the consequences of it?
4. How do you know?
5. How could it be otherwise?
   (Which forces need to be challenged to enable change and what perspective might change)

Question 22

Sociological Approach of Health and Illness

Answer 22

While in the medical world there is a tendency to bring the human out and focus on cells, in social sciences, there is a focus on looking at how things are embodied by humans. It brings back the ‘person’ element when studying the body

Question 23

General focus of Sociology of Health and Illness

Answer 23

• How social forces/mechanisms (social movements) promote health and illness (health influencers on social media platforms, influencing health behaviours through institutions)
• Why do some groups suffer from illness more than others
• In what ways do people experience illness
• How do health care systems impact the general population, the majority, and/or minority groups

Question 24

Health as a social construction

Answer 24

• Social location (factors) influences our physical health & wellness
• Health is typically best understood when it is gone, when it is defined in relation to illness
• Our social location impacts our physical health and well-being
• Surviving is no longer the issue, living happier, longer and healthier is the focus now; health surpasses the biophysical, it goes beyond instinctual drive for survival

Question 25

Why is it important to view health and the body as a social construction?

Answer 25

It challenge notions and issues of biological determinism

Question 26

Biological Determinism

Answer 26

• Belief that human behaviour can be explained via innate biological properties (genes and/or biochemical processes)
• Pink labour
• Father of gynaecology studied on black women because he believed they didn’t feel pain; this is biological determinism rooted in social factors
• Prof’s example of playing hockey, but everyone would tell her she should play badminton due to her Chinese ethnicity (biological determinism

Question 27

Defining Health

Answer 27

• Something you think about all the time
• “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, n.d., Ottawa Charter)
• It includes social, personal, and physical capacities
• A responsibility held by both health institutions and the individuals to have move beyond healthy lifestyles to overall well-being
• Who is empowered to make decisions & determine 5Ws and H of health

Question 28

Ottawa Charter

Answer 28

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, released by WHO in 1986, was one of the first international health conferences

Question 29

Fundamental Conditions and resources

Answer 29

Peace, Shelter, Education, Food, Income, Sustainable Ecosystem, Shelter, Social Justice, Equity