“The Sociological Imagination” as Cliché: Perils of Sociology and Practices of Journalism

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 20 - Trang 41-49 - 2008
Michael Schudson1,2
1Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York, USA
2Department of Communication, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, USA

Tóm tắt

The “sociological imagination” that connects personal troubles to public issues is an idea that was in the air when C. Wright Mills gave it a name and advanced it in a way to make it part of the intellectual armament of the New Left. Later, journalistic practice would turn it into a cliché while sociology would assume prematurely that it was a weapon for the left rather than a tool that could be used from and for different political positions. This essay is a set of second thoughts about the meaning of the “sociological imagination” since Mills.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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