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rbert Spencer's Evolutionary
Sociology C. Wright Mills [1916-1962] | |
C. Wright Mills on the
Sociological Imagination By Frank W. Elwell
The sociological imagination is simply a "quality of mind" that allows
one to grasp "history and biography and the relations between the two
within society.” For Mills the difference between effective sociological
thought and that thought which fails rested upon imagination.
Sociological thought, according to Mills is not something limited to
professors of sociology; it is an exercise that all people must attempt.
Mills claimed that Sociological research has come to be guided more by
the requirements of administrative concerns than by intellectual
concerns. It has become the accumulation of facts for the purpose of
facilitating administrative decisions. To truly fulfill the promise of
social science requires us to focus upon substantive problems, and to
relate these problems to structural and historical features of thesociocultural system. These features have meanings for individuals, and
they profoundly affect the values, character, and the behavior of the
men and women who make up that sociocultural system.
The promise of the social sciences is to bring reason to bear on human
affairs. To fulfill this role requires that we "avoid furthering the
bureaucratization of reason and of discourse. What I am suggesting is
that by addressing ourselves to issues and to troubles, and formulating
them as problems of social science, we stand the best chance, I believe
the only chance, to make reason democratically relevant to human affairs
in a free society, and so to realize the classic values that underlie
the promise of our studies" (1959: 194). Mills set forth his own
conception of how a social scientist should undertake the work. He
conveys a sense of what it means to be an intellectual who concentrates
on the social nature of man and who seeks that which is significant. In
an appendix to the Sociological Imagination he set forth some guidelines
that, if followed, would lead to intellectual craftsmanship.
1.
First of all, a good scholar does not split work from life. Both are
part of a seriously accepted unity.
2.
Second, a good scholar must keep a file.
This file is a compendium of personal, professional, and
intellectual experiences
3.
Third, a good intellectual engages in continual review of thoughts and
experiences.
4.
Fourth, a good intellectual may find a truly bad book as intellectually
stimulating and conducive to thinking as a good book.
5.
Fifth, there must be an attitude of playfulness toward phrases, words,
and ideas. Along with this
attitude one must have a fierce drive to make sense out of the world.
6.
Sixth, the imagination is stimulated by assuming a willingness to view
the world from the perspective of others.
7.
Seventh, one should not be afraid , in the preliminary stages of
speculation, to think in terms of imaginative extremes.
8.
Eighth, one should not hesitate to express ideas in language which is as
simple and direct as one can make it.
Ideas are affected by the manner of their expression. An
imagination which is encased in deadening language will be a deadened
imagination.
Mills identified five overarching social problems in American society:
1) Alienation; 2) Moral insensibility; 3) Threats to democracy; 4)
Threats to human freedom; and 5) Conflict between bureaucratic
rationality and human reason. Like Marx, Mills views the problem of
alienation as a characteristic of modern society
and one that is deeply
rooted in the character of work. Unlike Marx, however, Mills does not
attribute alienation to capitalism alone. While he agrees that much
alienation is due to the ownership of the means of production, he
believes much of it is also due to the modern division of labor.
One of the fundamental problems of mass society is that many people have
lost their faith in leaders and are therefore very apathetic. Such
people pay little attention to politics. Mills characterizes such apathy
as a "spiritual condition" which is at the root of many of our
contemporary problems. Apathy leads to "moral insensibility." Such
people mutely accept atrocities committed by their leaders. They lack
indignation when confronted with moral horror; they lack the capacity to
morally react to the character, decisions, and actions of their leaders.
Mass communications contributes to this condition, Mills argues, through
the sheer volume of images aimed at the individual in which she "becomes
the spectator of everything but the human witness of nothing.”
Mills relates this moral insensibility directly to the rationalization
process. Our acts of cruelty and barbarism are split from the
consciousness of men--both perpetrators and observers. We perform these
acts as part of our role in formal organizations. We are guided not by
individual consciousness, but by the orders of others. Thus many of our
actions are inhuman, not because of the scale of their cruelty, but
because they are impersonal, efficient. and performed without any real
emotion.
Mills believed that widespread alienation, political indifference, and
economic and political concentration of power is a serious all added up
to a serious threat to democracy. Finally, Mills is continually
concerned in his writings with the threat to two fundamental human
values: "freedom and reason." Mills characterizes the trends that
imperil these values as being "co-extensive with the major trends of
contemporary society.” These trends are, Mills states throughout his
writings, the centralization and enlargement of vast bureaucratic
organizations, and the placing of this extraordinary power and authority
into the hands of a small elite.
For the individual, rational organization is an alienating organization,
destructive of freedom and autonomy. It cuts the individual off from the
conscious conduct of his behavior, thought, and ultimately emotions. The
individual is guided in her actions not by her consciousness, but by the
prescribed roles and the rules of the organization itself. "It is not
too much to say that in the extreme development the chance to reason of
most men is destroyed, as rationality increases and its locus, its
control, is moved from the individual to the big-scale organization.
There is then rationality without reason. Such rationality is not
commensurate with freedom but the destroyer of it." Like Weber before
him, Mills cautions that a society dominated by rational social
organization is not based on reason, intelligence, and good will toward
all. Further, it is through rational social organization that modern day
tyrants (as well as more mundane bureaucratic managers) exercise their
authority and manipulation, often denying the opportunity of their
subjects to exercise their own judgments. For a more extensive discussion of Mills's theories refer to Macro Social Theory by Frank W. Elwell. Also see Sociocultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change to learn how his insights contribute to a more complete understanding of modern societies.
References:
Elwell, F. W. (2006). Macrosociology: Four Modern Theorists.
Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Elwell, F. (2013), Sociocultural Systems: Principles of Structure and
Change. Alberta: Athabasca University Press.
Mills, C. W. (2000). C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical
Writings. (K. Mills, & P. Mills, Eds.) Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Mills, C. W. (1960). Listen Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba. New
York: Ballantine Books.
Mills, C. W. (1958). The Causes of World War Three. London:
Secker & Warburg.
Mills, C. W. (1956/1970). The Power Elite. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1959/1976). The Sociological Imagination. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1951/1973). White Collar: The American Middle Classes.
New York: Oxford University Press.
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