Mill’s theory of sociological imagination and Pakistani society

It is a natural propensity of human nature to attribute the different existing individual problems to the particular individual, from a sociological perspective, it means to look at individual problems in an individual context; for instance, if an individual is unemployed, the people may tend to attribute it to that particular individual for lacking the skills to acquire a source of employment. Similarly, if a marriage between a couple fails to hold the couple together and the bond breaks, the consequence is attributed to the inability of both the stakeholders of the marriage–the wife and the husband—to not meet the requirements of a balanced married life. This is how common sense, along with our day-to-day experience with life, shapes our views with regards to our understanding of social problems, and that is how we get a prism through which we look at these social issues in an individual context. This prism of looking at social issues limits our thinking to the individual context and we become “victims of social forces”.

As sociological findings are often at odd with the so-called common sense, the same is the case in terms of understanding social issues. Sociologists take a different approach in terms of looking at social issues and they stress that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects of society itself. Individuals’ misfortunes or troubles must be understood in terms of larger public issues. As I have mentioned above, the unemployment or the failure of a marriage may not be an individual issue but rather there must something amiss in the economic structure of the society that has led to a lack of adequate job opportunities, resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate, and the institution of marriage which has failed to produce successful marriages. This theory was proposed by the renowned American Sociologist, Charles Wright Mills (1916–62), a colourful and controversial professor at New York’s Columbia University. He coined the term “Sociological Imagination” the means by which the relation between self and society can be understood. The sociological imagination is the ability to see the interrelationships between biography and history, or the connections between our individual lives and larger social forces at work shaping our lives.

In his renowned classic, “The Sociological Imagination”, Mill notes down, “When a society is industrialized, a peasant becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed or unemployed; when the rate of investment goes up or down, a man takes a new heart or goes broke. When wars happen, an insurance salesman becomes a rocket launcher; a store clerk, a radar man; a wife lives alone; a child grows up without a father. Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” The father of sociological imagination, C Wright Mills, founded this field of thinking in the mid-20th century. At the time he wrote that individual life and history of the society are both intertwined entities, neither the individual life nor can the history of the society be understood without understanding both. In simple terms, Sociological Imagination can be viewed as the ability to connect individual problems to broader social forces, it tends to rather emphasize the system than on exploring the individual problems.

Pakistani Society is marred with a plethora of social issues that vary in their intensity. In order to understand the different social issues while taking into consideration the perspective of the Sociological Imagination, we need to take off the glasses through which we look at these issues and go beyond our common-sense understanding to grasp an In-depth and contextual understanding of the link that exists between the individual misfortunes\troubles and the larger social forces at work shaping our lives. Let’s take into account a few of the most prevalent social issues in Pakistan and apply The Sociological Imagination perspective.

In recent times, the issue that concerns each individual is that of the alarming rise in the cases of rape in Pakistani society. Despite being an unacceptable deviant behaviour, the cases are rising on a steep curve. Now, provided the savagery of this heinous crime, should this issue be attributed to the perpetrator of the crime or we should look for the faults that lie within the structure of the society and the biography of the perpetrator to understand this social issue? As per common sense, rape is an individual problem, a case in which an individual fails to conform to the social norms of the society and goes deviant. So, the solution also lies within the individual, like punishing the perpetrator and we are done with the issue. This is where sociology comes at odd with common sense. Had there been few numbers rape cases in Pakistan, it could have been possible to look at this issue in an individual context. But there are hundreds of cases out there, which means that we cannot just do away with this issue by simply attributing it to the perpetrator (though the victim, too, is blamed in most of the cases) for the deviant behaviour. There must be something defective in the very structure of the society that has given room to loopholes, resulting in the fading away of the norms that the varied society has created. So, punishing the perpetrator will not bring a solution to such an enormous social issue but, as Mill argues, the very structure of the society needs to be re-examined to correct the flaws. Taking into consideration this argument, the social issue of rape must be understood in terms of societal context and steps should be taken to fill the loopholes in the society instead of merely condemning the perpetrator and victimizing the victim.

The same case can be applied to unemployment—another burgeoning social issue. As Mills urges that our personal troubles have a link to the larger social issues, so does the issue of unemployment. A common perception prevalent in Pakistani society is that the there is a dire lack of technical skills among the burgeoning youth of the Pakistan to qualify the requirements for a stable job, leading to further unemployment. Though this argument is not invalid, but it would be naïve attribute the entire status quo to the lack of skills among the youth. Taking into consideration the perspective of Sociological imagination, we must relate the rising rate of unemployment to the health of the economy of the society. It is the economy of Pakistani Society that fails to provide adequate opportunities to the youth, leading to a massive increase in the rate of unemployment. Ascribing the social issue of unemployment primarily to individual incapability will not resolve the protracted issues, but a broader understanding of the societal flaws can be helpful.

Similarly, there are multiple issues out there in our society that we tend to understand and view in an individual context, on the basis of our common sense. Those social issues include crime, poverty, corruption divorce and so on. Without understanding the Sociological Imagination, we fail to go beyond our general perception regarding our social issues and consequently fall prey to social forces, as all of our common-sense ideas are the result of our limited social experiences and sociological Imagination provides us with a framework to go beyond those limitations and delve deep into the system and structure of our society to grasp a better understanding of the connectivity between our self and the society. By understanding how social mechanisms operate, we can better work to bring about change and influence history. The Sociological imagination provides one with a unique prism to look at different social issues and let us get ourselves out of limitations imposed on us by our narrow social experiences.