First Blog Prompt: Defining and Using the Sociological Imagination

This week in class we've begun our study of sociology by defining the "sociological imagination," a term coined by sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1967 to describe the sociological perspective that connects micro-level individual experiences and macro-level social institutions. In your first blog do the following:

1. Introduce yourself. Tell us something about you (that you don't mind being on the very public forum of the Internet) that will help us get to know you.
2. Explain the sociological imagination in your own words. Try to write as if you are explaining to someone who has never read or heard anything about it. Feel free to use examples from your personal life or the Internet. Make sure to discuss the importance of considering history and biography.
3. What is one aspect of social life that is very familiar to you that you would like to "make strange" over the next six weeks? That is, choose an aspect of social life and consider how social context (time and place) affects your experience of that aspect. 

Remember, be creative! The point is to work with concepts; define them in your own words and then apply them, use them to explain your experiences of the social world.