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A Quarterly Publication of
The American Sociological Association
ABSTRACTS
Volume 37, Number 1, January 2009SPECIAL ISSUE ON 50 YEARS OF C. WRIGHT MILLS
AND THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATIONINTRODUCTION
50 Years of C. Wright Mills and The Sociological Imagination . . . . . Stephen J. Scanlan and Liz Grauerholz
ARTICLES
- Sisyphus Had It Easy: Reflections of Two Decades of Teaching the Sociological Imagination . . . . . Steven P. Dandaneau
- Last But Not Least: The Pedagogical Insights of “Intellectual Craftsmanship” . . . . . Peter Kaufman and Todd Schoepflin
- Teaching Mills in Tokyo: Developing a Sociological Imagination Through Storytelling . . . . . Debbie Storrs
- Students’ Lived Experiences as Text in Teaching the Sociological Imagination . . . . . Katrina C. Hoop
- C. Wright Mills’s Friendly Critique of Service Learning and an Innovative Response: Cross Institutional Collaborations for Community-Based Research . . . . . Sam Marullo, Roxanna Moayedi, and Deanna Cooke
- The Sociological Imagination and Social Responsibility . . . . . Robert J. Hironimus-Wendt and Lora Ebert Wallace
- Toward Teaching a Liberating Sociological Practicality: Challenges for Teaching, Learning and Practice . . . . . Marv Finkelstein
SISYPHUS HAD IT EASY: REFLECTIONS OF TWO DECADES OF
TEACHING THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATIONThe Sociological Imagination is among the most recognized books in the history of American Sociology. Yet, the sociological imagination as such, a radical form of self-consciousness, is not commonly well understood nor easily acquired. This essay examines the challenges thus faced by instructors who seek to accurately impart what Mills meant by his famous neologism and the even stiffer challenge for those struggling to instill the sociological imagination in their students. Two pertinent examples of creative and probably productive pedagogy are discussed, Maurice R. Stein's "Sociology of Birth & Death" at Brandeis University and Brian Rich's senior seminar in sociology at Transylvania University. The essay concludes with advice for the instructor in pursuit of fidelity to Mills's original argument and guidance vis-à-vis the typical constraints encountered in today's classrooms.
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LAST BUT NOT LEAST: THE PEDAGOGICAL INSIGHTS OF "INTELLECTUAL CRAFTSMANSHIP"
Although much has been written in the past 50 years about the pedagogical value of The Sociological Imagination, one section of Mills's book has been underutilized for far too long. Namely, the essay in the appendix, "On Intellectual Craftsmanship," has been rarely invoked by sociologists discussing the significance of The Sociological Imagination for teaching and learning. Given that the appendix is explicitly about doing research and engaging in the scholarly process, this oversight may be understandable; however, we argue that there is much to be found in the appendix that serves the needs of teachers and learners alike. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the pedagogical insights that are implicit in Mills's recommendations for being intellectual craftspersons.
TEACHING MILLS IN TOKYO: DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION THROUGH STORYTELLING
Here I emphasize the applicability of the sociological imagination to an international audience by sharing my journey of teaching sociology in Japan. I found my own sociological imagination helpful in critically evaluating the literature on Japanese higher education and the construction of the Japanese student as a form of Orientalism. As I embraced international students’ unique, context-specific capacities for learning, I relied on the illuminating power of C. Wright Mills’s sociological imagination to heighten their understandings of themselves and others. Despite the characterization of Japanese students as passive learners, I discovered an engaged and responsive student body who developed a keen sociological imagination through storytelling. Employing a pedagogy of storytelling, I helped my students successfully explore gender and ethnic troubles as public issues in a global context. The insight gained abroad has led me to expand my pedagogy at home beyond active learning strategies to incorporate stories to enhance U.S. students’ sociological imagination.
STUDENTS' LIVED EXPERIENCES AS TEXT IN TEACHING THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Although we may claim our students are developing a sociological imagination, it is quite another to realize this in our teaching and our students' performances. Through a professional move from teaching in Chicago to Maine, I was led to rethink how I teach the sociological imagination. I argue that if we are to teach the sociological imagination, we must consider our students' contextual backgrounds more carefully and use students' lived experiences as "text" from which they exercise and develop their sociological imaginations. I illustrate this approach with an assignment designed to use students' experiences from rural and small towns in Maine. The assignment challenges them to use their sociological perspective to look at the relationship between "private troubles" and "public issues," and to demonstrate using a sociological imagination to reflect on their biographies.
C. WRIGHT MILLS'S FRIENDLY CRITIQUE OF SERVICE LEARNING AND AN INNOVATIVE RESPONSE: CROSS INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATIONS FOR COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH
C. Wright Mills would be a friendly critic of service learning, acknowledging its benefits for providing students with experiential learning opportunities to connect personal troubles with social issues. Yet he would be critical of service learning practices that perpetuate institutional power inequalities and that do not advance the social change objectives of community based organizations. We offer an innovative approach that helps to address some of these concerns which, when used in conjunction with "best practices" of service learning, has the potential to make a greater impact on the community than most service learning projects. This paper highlights how two sociology programs in two urban universities-a large, elite university and a smaller, minority-serving university-have completed significant community-based research projects by having classes of students at both universities work on projects both consecutively and simultaneously across several semesters to complete substantial research projects with and for community partners. We use a case study approach to identify five key practices that have enabled the two universities to effectively collaborate across institutions.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
In this paper, we maintain that sociologists should deliberately teach social responsibility as a means of fulfilling the promise that C. Wright Mills envisioned. A key aspect of the sociological imagination includes a sense of social responsibility, but that aspect is best learned through a combination of experience and academic knowledge. Students gain the fullest sense of the sociological imagination, one that includes social responsibility, when they are able to have encounters and experiences that challenge their pre-existing world-views and allow them to see first-hand the sociological concepts they learn in the classroom. Further, we argue that teaching social responsibility is appropriate because it has deep roots in the discipline. We identify the origins of the active learning model in sociological theory and provide examples of the ways in which social responsibility is realized through service learning experiences of our students.
TOWARD TEACHING A LIBERATING SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICALITY: CHALLENGES FOR TEACHING, LEARNING AND PRACTICE
Though C. Wright Mills made a pivotal contribution to the discipline by raising sociologists' awareness of the ideological and bureaucratic content of sociological practicality, he may have placed unyielding limits on "the promise" he profoundly proclaimed in the "sociological imagination." By defining types of practicality in such rigidly confining terms, as either "liberal" or "illiberal," those wishing to practice sociology in broader and more expansive ways were left with few of the alternatives Mills himself wished to extol. Over the past generation, the field of applied sociology and teaching and learning sociological practice has struggled to develop in the discipline. This has posed huge challenges for teachers wishing to address the needs of students who have perennially been interested in finding practical possibilities for applying their sociology in jobs and careers. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) examine the concept of sociological practicality propounded by Mills; 2) critically assess the concept of sociological practicality in the historical context of American sociology; 3) identify and discuss a broad typology of models of research and practice from which types of practicality may emerge; 4) discuss the implications of this typology for teaching and learning sociological practice; and 5) conclude by discussing ways of teaching a liberating practicality for sociology.
TOWARD TEACHING A LIBERATING SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICALITY: CHALLENGES FOR TEACHING, LEARNING AND PRACTICE
Though C. Wright Mills made a pivotal contribution to the discipline by raising sociologists' awareness of the ideological and bureaucratic content of sociological practicality, he may have placed unyielding limits on "the promise" he profoundly proclaimed in the "sociological imagination." By defining types of practicality in such rigidly confining terms, as either "liberal" or "illiberal," those wishing to practice sociology in broader and more expansive ways were left with few of the alternatives Mills himself wished to extol. Over the past generation, the field of applied sociology and teaching and learning sociological practice has struggled to develop in the discipline. This has posed huge challenges for teachers wishing to address the needs of students who have perennially been interested in finding practical possibilities for applying their sociology in jobs and careers. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) examine the concept of sociological practicality propounded by Mills; 2) critically assess the concept of sociological practicality in the historical context of American sociology; 3) identify and discuss a broad typology of models of research and practice from which types of practicality may emerge; 4) discuss the implications of this typology for teaching and learning sociological practice; and 5) conclude by discussing ways of teaching a liberating practicality for sociology.
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