Imagine this...with Sociology

As you enter, please take out your gold Framework guide and read this post:

We have been talking about a how sociologists view the world.  Another way to understand how to have a sociological perspective is through what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination".  Mills described the sociological imagination as the "connection of biography to history".   Biography is who a person is.  History is when and where you live.  So, a sociological imagination is the understanding that people are shaped by when and where they live.

One example of sociological imagination is through the Beloit Mindset list. Every year, Beloit College publishes a list of how the current year's freshmen will experience and have experienced the world differently.

Click on the link above and think about how your world is different than the one in which your parents grew up.

Data/example:  How is this an example of the sociological imagination?

A couple examples of this are from the NY Times:
Here is an article about students not writing in cursive.
And, this link is about the changing role of the wristwatch.

Both show that being born in a different time means students will experience the world differently.  This might sound obvious, but there is a tendency for people to think that they are simply who they are regardless of time or place.


Conclusions and inquiry:  How might kids being born today experience the world differently than you have?  Or, how might kids being born in 2013 be influenced differently than you have?  And yet another way to think about this is, how might you have been different if you grew up somewhere else?  Especially for those of you who have moved, try to imagine what your life would be if you still lived somewhere else.


Another example is this video of a child who is trying to use a magazine like an ipad:



This is a great post from the Everyday Sociology site that explains how a sociological imagination can be used to analyze how individuals are affected by where they live.

Student Notes:

What is a sociological imagination?
What does it mean to be the intersection of history and biography?

What is does SI have to do with personal troubles and public issues?

Refer to Ferris & Stein (textbook) pgs. 9-13, 17 for more info.

Google and Social Science

What do you think the most important qualities would be for someone working at Google?

It might surprise you to find out what the qualities are that Google now looks for in it's managers and leaders.  And the cool part about it is that Google hired researchers with a background in social science (sociology) to help them improve.

"...the best teams at Google exhibit a range of soft skills: equality, generosity, curiosity toward the ideas of your teammates, empathy, and emotional intelligence. And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard."

Here is the Google site for Project Oxygen which was the conclusion of what Google found by using social scientists to study their managers and culture.

My class will demand that you exhibit these skills that researchers identified.  It will demand that you are active.  You cannot hide quietly in class and you cannot rely on a test to pass the class.