Good example of social imagination essay

Sociological imagination can be defined, as the ability of an individual to shift from one point of view to another. As Giddens define, an individual who has sociological imaginations is the one who has the ability to put him off from the normal routine of life, and the way that he is familiar with. The term can also be defined as the ability of an individual to see the ways in which sociological situations have a key role in the manner in which individuals differ in different aspects such as their locality and their historical background (Levine, 7).
It can be explained as a different mode of thoughts concerning what the society entails, and the result that are produced by a society through trying to understand the societal nature and its outcome. The factors the influences the societal outcome may comprise of the norms governing the society, the desires of the individuals, the context of the society in a certain country, the interaction of the people in the society and the time duration. These factors are the key determinants of our characters, what we become in the future, and our status (Fuller, 12).
In a functional manner, it can be stated as the ability to view things in a social aspect and the manner in which they interact and the influential impact they have for each other. Sociological imagination entails the knowledge and understanding of how the human society gets informed through some interconnections. It can also be considered as the capability to view things in an interactive manner between the society and the people, instead of a personal experience (Gordon, 18).
Even though sociological imagination is viewed as, the capability of an individual to shift from a certain perspective to another in order to make it possible to shift from the perspective to another. Sociological imaginations were a crucial element in helping an individual to interlink and be able to differentiate between the public issues and the personal issues. The importance of involving popular movies and films in order to increase the student’s level of understanding of topics about sociology is tremendously recognized (Fuller, 29).
The practitioners who are involved in the education programs that teach some lessons in social difficulties commonly uses film reports in order to teach about conflicts. This enables the students to adopt a worldwide point and to deal with problems such as the racial relation. The use of films is usually backed up with several advantages in educating the student about the prominent cultures. The students who are educated through films, especially those who undertake courses like the medical sociology have the advantage of gaining experience through the observation experiences in the film (Gordon, 31).
The discipline recognizes the importance of films as a major way of recording long time documents of changes in the ideas about culture, institutions, and materials. The films are important in explaining the significance of thinking in a sociological manner in explaining how sociological imagination assists us in giving a sense to the social world we live in (Fuller, 42).
The sociological imagination can be applied in any behavior exhibited by an individual. A good example is the act of taking a mug of coffee. It can be argued that the act is rather a social ritual that is performed on a daily basis instead of claiming that coffee is just a drink. The ritual here is taken as an act of major importance as compared to the visual act of drinking the coffee. An example is that of two individual meeting to drink coffee together as they have a chat is more likely to be interesting as compared to drinking the coffee alone. According to the societal aspect, eating and drinking are usually taken as a social occasion, and it is mainly done to enhance social interaction among individuals, as it is a performance of rituals. The ritual is accompanied offers great understanding about the discipline matter of the sociological study (Levine, 89).
The second sociological aspect in the act of taking the coffee is that of the association of coffee with drugs. This is because coffee contains high level of caffeine. Caffeine is a type of drug that stimulates the brain. Many individuals take this as the major reason why they take coffee. Sociologically, it is interesting to argue why coffee addicts are not considered as drug users like those who use alcohol and other drugs (Gordon, 37).
Finally, taking a mug of coffee can be associated with economic and some social relationships. The process of growing, packaging, distribution, and the marketing of the coffee product, which are global businesses, has a great impact in many cultures, organizations and the social class in the different cultures. The coffee can be related to the past economic and social developments. The current relationships of coffee that are consumed were initially not there as compared to drinks that were used such as tea (Levine, 123).

Works Cited

Fuller, Steve. The New Sociological Imagination. London: SAGE, 2006. Internet resource.
Gordon, Avery F. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis:
Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2001. Print.
Levine, Rhonda F. Enriching the Sociological Imagination: How Radical Sociology Changed the
Discipline. Leiden: Brill, 2004. Print.