The Sociological Imagination

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The Sociological Imagination is a monograph by C. Wright Mills , which was published in New York in 1959 and in 1963 in German translation as a critique of sociological thought . The new translation from 2016 is entitled Sociological Fantasy .

In his sociological legacy, Mills combines the radical criticism of American post-war sociology with the draft of a critical and radical democratic character in the subject. It is one of the most influential classics in sociology .

content

The book has ten chapters and the appendix On Intellectual Craftmanship (German: Zum intellectual Handwerk ). In the first chapter, Mills advocates sharpening the sociological perspective and developing sociological imagination. This makes it possible to recognize one's own biography in the context of social conditions, not only to suffer society, but to change it from below .

The following four chapters contain a radical critique of American post-war sociology. Mills criticizes the indifferent attitude of his specialist colleagues towards socio-political problems and criticizes the fact that they have mostly turned into administrative people and scientific bureaucrats ( cheerful robots ) within the framework of the division of labor and academic specialization . While “great theory” (example: Talcott Parsons ) operates with terms that can hardly be verified empirically, “mindless empiricism” (example: Paul Felix Lazarsfeld ) falls into the other extreme, believing that it can collect data without it making theoretical efforts. Even Marxism or liberalism are no longer in a position to bring modern social conditions to the concept. In addition, there is a shift in the award of contracts from public institutions to private customers ( shift from public to client ), which makes democratic control more difficult.

In the next five chapters, Mills outlines the main features of an alternative and radical democratic sociology and thus ties in with the classic traditions of the subject, because in the classics theory and empiricism would have been in an appropriate relationship to one another. Furthermore, such a critical sociology should not forego the historical dimension. Only the study of history together with a sociological comparison makes it possible to recognize how democratic developments have become possible.

In the appendix, Mills refers to the connection between critical sociology and method, but primarily criticizes language. He recommends not being blinded by the theoretical ballast and sociologist jargon and using a language that is appropriate to one's own sociological imagination and imagination.

reception

In a worldwide survey of members by the International Sociological Association for the most influential specialist publications of the century, The Sociological Imagination came in second place after Max Weber's Economy and Society in 1997 . Although the book thus occupied an absolutely special position, according to Hans Jürgen Krysmanski it has been criminally neglected in German-speaking countries, which not only had to do with the unsuccessful (first) German translation: for some it did not seem scientific enough, for others not Marxist enough. The criticism of Parsons' great system-theoretical theory was published in Germany at a time when, with the work of Niklas Luhmann, "the great system-theoretical veil fell over German sociology."

Stephan Lessenich writes in his foreword to the second German translation that Mills, like no other sociologist of the 20th century , has rendered outstanding services to sociology , which is both critical and public ; The Sociological Imagination is impressive evidence of this. For Andreas Hess, the criticism of language and the application of sociological criticism to the subject itself have made the book a classic.

expenditure

  • The sociological imagination . Oxford University Press, Oxford (England) / New York 1959.
  • The sociological imagination . Fortieth anniversary edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford (England) / New York 1999, ISBN 978-0-19-513373-8 .
    • Critique of Sociological Thought . Translated by Albrecht Kruse, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1963.
    • Sociological imagination . Edited by Stephan Lessenich , translated by Ulrike Berger, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-10015-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Goodwin: SAGE Biographical Research . SAGE, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4462-7592-4 ( com.ph [accessed May 4, 2020]).
  2. ^ Books of the Century , International Sociological Association
  3. ^ Hans Jürgen Krysmanski : Mills, C. Wright. Critique of Sociological Thought . Keyword in: Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff (Ed.), Lexicon of Sociological Works , Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 2001, ISBN 978-3-531-13255-6 , p. 474 f., Here p. 474.
  4. ↑ On the unsuccessful translation also Wolfgang J. Helbich : A sociologist criticizes sociology. C. Wright Mills allegedly in German , Die Zeit , September 4, 1964.
  5. ↑ Stephan Lessenich , Sociological Fantasy yesterday and today . Foreword to the new German edition by C. Wright Mills: Sociological Fantasy . Translated by Ulrike Berger, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-10015-5 , pp. 7-21, here pp. 7 f.
  6. ^ Andreas Hess: Charles Wright Mills. The Sociological Imagination . In: Dirk Kaesler , Ludgera Vogt (Hrsg.): Major works of sociology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 396). Kröner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-520-39601-7 , pp. 312-315, here p. 315.