ANSWER ONE OF THE FOLLOWING
- In his essay on the sociological imagination, C Wright Mills asserts the following:
a. “We have come to know that every individual lives from one generation to the
next, in some society; that he lives out a biography, and that he lives it out within
some historical sequence. By the fact of his living he contributes, however
minutely, to the shaping of this society and to the course of its history, even as he
is made by society and by its historical push and shove.” P.6
What does he mean by this statement? How does it begin to explain his concept called
sociological imagination? What are some other examples of how he defines sociological
imagination? Please provide an example of sociological imagination while using one of
the following semester’s readings (On the Run OR The Mark of a Criminal Record).
How does the author of On the Run OR The Mark of a Criminal Record use sociological
imagination to explain the social phenomenon that interests them? Is the author’s use of
sociological imagination convincing? Why or why not? Please provide direct examples
from the readings and from any real-life examples (as reported in newspapers or
academic journals) that you already know about.
2 - The readings on urban livelihoods, spatial segregation, and environmental racism tell
common (and slightly different) stories about people and place in urban settings. Where is
there similarity across all of these readings? For example, how do people generally seem
to respond to challenging circumstance(s) in their neighborhoods according to these
articles? What does challenge or despair look like in these neighborhoods? What are
similar structural problems in these neighborhoods? Finally, how do people persist and
thrive in these neighborhoods and how do they fail in these neighborhoods? Why is
understanding any of this important? Please draw on direct examples from one article out
of each of the weeks to answer these questions. This means you should use examples
from a total of three articles. One article from urban livelihoods. One article from spatial
segregation. One article from environmental racism. - Deviance, unconventional behavior, and underground activities is underexplored in
mainstream sociology and mainstream urban sociology. However, Terry Willams,
Michele Foucalt, Saskia Sassen, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore give us some ways to think
about these social phenomena. Along these lines, what are some examples of deviance,
unconventional, or non-mainstream that at least two of these authors write about? What
is deviant, unconventional or non-mainstream about their subject matter? How does their
writing complicate our conventional understanding of these topics? Why is their
perspective worth reading? What are some other examples of deviant, unconventional or
non-mainstream behaviors that are not fully understood in other sociological subject
matters? How do you propose we better understand those other examples? Please draw on
direct examples from at least two articles out of the five articles that we have read from
these authors to answer these questions.
Sample Solution