1.03MWF Imagine Where or When; C. Wright Mills' Sociological Imagination

Before we begin the lesson, as students arrive, please review this excerpt from Outliers.

(If you are absent, please be sure to do the Google Form for today's lesson)

(If you are in class please answer these questions)

Meditation

Attendance sign in and seat map.

Today's Lesson: C Wright Mills' Sociological Imagination

After reading the excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, answer the questions:

Big Group Discussion:

1. Describe life in Roseto, PA.

2. What did Dr. Wolf set out to study at first?

3. What did the sociologist Bruhn help him conclude?

4. Were the people of Roseto, PA aware of that they were being affected in the way that Bruhn concluded? Explain.

In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell writes about extreme success stories (aka Outliers). In the introduction (the excerpt linked above),  we learn that the people who lived in Roseto at that time were affected by the social life there even though they did not realize it. In other words, they were affected by where and when they live. Understanding this helps us why the people living there were so healthy. This is the promise of sociology; to understand how people are affected by where and when they live. Sociology helps us understand how personal difficulties and successes can be part of larger public/social issues. And, if we are sociologically mindful, we can see how we personally contribute to that and we can take agency in our lives to affect those public issues in ways that we value.

What is C. Wright Mills Sociological Imagination?

The understanding that people are affected by when and where they live is what an important sociologist, C. Wright Mills, calls having a "sociological imagination".   Mills explains that a "sociological imagination" is seeing the connection between history and biography. That is, who we are (our biography) is determined by where and when we live (our history).  

As an example of this idea, the people of Roseto were affected by where and when they lived. Because they lived in the town of Roseto at that time, they lived in a way that affected them (without even knowing it) so that they had a much lower chance of getting heart disease and living longer than the rest of the country.  This idea might seem simple, but C. Wright Mills, an important sociologist, wrote in 1959, that people often forget this in both their daily life and their research.  Mills also adds that using a sociological imagination it is possible to see the private troubles as public issues.  In other words, often times a person's struggle in daily life is really part of a larger structural issue that individuals can't always see.

The rest of Gladwell's book, Outliers, uses a sociological imagination to explain extreme success stories; for example, Bill Gates' and Steve Jobs' tremendous success and wealth stemming from where and when they lived: 

Gladwell describes how being born in the mid 1950s was particularly fortuitous for those interested in computer programming development (think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both born in 1955). It also helped to be geographically near what were then called supercomputers, the gigantic predecessors to the thing on which you’re reading this post. Back in the 1960s, when Gates and Jobs were coming of age, a supercomputer took up a whole room and was not something most youngsters would have had a chance to see, let alone work on. But because of their proximity to actual computers, both Gates and Jobs had a leg up on others their age and had the chance to spend hours and hours (10,000 of them in Gladwell’s estimation) learning about programming.

For more info/examples of the sociological imagination, see this post from the Everyday Sociology site that explains how a sociological imagination can be used to analyze how individuals are affected by when and where they live.

Imagine Where...

John Felice Rome Center Campus

See it on Youtube here

Rome Center Campus

One way to think with a sociological imagination is to think about how you would think and act differently if you were living in a different place. What if you applied to Loyola just like you did and you attended it during the same years that you are now, but you attended ONLY the John Felice Rome Center Campus? Imagine how you might be different, act differently, think differently, just because you went to Loyola Rome for four years.

Here is a comparison website for living in countries around the world.

 If you lived in Italy, you would: 

• be more likely to live 2 years longer
• be 76% LESS likely to die during childbirth 
• be 45% LESS likely to be obese
• be 38% LESS likely to die as an infant
• be 18% less likely to have an internet connection 

STEFL describes Italy v. the US; sense of time and food 

• Expect appointments to be late 
• Most shops close for 2 hours during the middle of the day 
• At restaurants expects three courses, dessert, then coffee

From Business insider, I moved from the US to Rome but I'll never fully adjust to some Italian ways

• Life is slower paced
• In person is more reliable than phone or internet 
• Italians spend much less time in their home
• Life in Italy is more social and less isolating
• People eat more meals out
• Staring is more acceptable  

For Discussion:

5. Take a minute and explain to some classmates near you how you have been shaped by where you grew up.  What was life like in the city or neighborhood where you grew up - how did places where you live shape you differently than others here at Loyola or residents from Rogers Park? 

Imagine When...

The sociological imagination also applies to when a person lives.

Now we will use our sociological imagination to examine how people might be affected by when they live.  Using archives from the LUC's library, examine the pictures of our school from years past.

Find some examples how, even if you were the same person at Loyola, you would be different if you went here during a different time. 

The yearbooks are also available online here:

https://archive.org/details/loyolachicago?tab=collection

Choose one of the yearbooks called "The Loyolan" because that is the undergraduate college (Caduceus is the Stritch School of Medicine and Dentos is the Dental School)

In small groups, do a qualitative content analysis of the yearbooks from LUC past.  Look for differences between LUC now and then.  Answer the following questions:

6. What are the differences between that year and now?

7. Thinking about the differences that you noticed, how might you be different if you had been attending LUC during that time?  In other words, how might you think differently, act differently, and have different expectations if you lived at the time you examined?  Another way to think about this question is, how might you feel differently about yourself/school/etc if you attended LUC then?

Private troubles and public issues

8. What are the different obstacles that you might've faced then instead of now?

After you try to find your own examples, here is a sample of some of the photos that I found  that illustrate a sociological imagination.

Other Examples:

Another example of being affected by when you are born is this video of a child who is trying to use a magazine like an ipad:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXV-yaFmQNk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pull up for another low key example -  no cap! 

From Buzzfeed and  Language Nerds, sociology teacher James Callahan has been recording the slang his students use on a public pdf document.  Here is a sample of the list:

This slang changes from generation to generation.  In other words, how you talk and the slang you use can reveal your generation.  Stephen Colbert joked about how just when one generation thinks that they are cool, their slang becomes outdated and new slang emerges.  

Here is a Parade article about the slang from generation Alpha.

9. What are some slang words or phrases that your generation uses that other gens might not understand?

Generational Attitudes 

This research from the Pew Research Center in the graphics below shows numerous differences in how Americans born in different generations think about social and political issues.  Remember that when people joke around about different generations (like saying "Ok Boomer"), we are acknowledging that being born in a different generation means being more likely to think a certain way.

When you were born affects your beliefs about:

Racial Equality        Immigrants            Gay Marriage            Marijuana

Conclusion
Today's lesson was focused on C. Wright Mills' Sociological Imagination.

• Explain what C. Wright Mills means by having a sociological imagination?
• What does Mills mean by "private troubles and public issues" and how are they related?
• Can you connect it to your own life?  What are some specific examples to your life - how might you be the person you are because of when and where you are living, or conversely, how might you be a different person based on when and where you live?

Further Reading:

Open Stax: What Is Sociology?