Cw Mills, a sociologist, uses social imagination to explain the distinction, which occur between the personal troubles and the public issues. These distinctions are an essential tool of sociological imaginations as well as featuring in the classical work of social science. Below are some examples from the contemporary life, which explains the difference between personal troubles and the public issues. First, troubles occur to the individual within the range of their relations with others. Trouble creates a distinction between individual life and the social life; a trouble is seen as a threat to individual life. (Cw Mills, 9) People tend to concentrate on their problem first before tackling the public problems.
Moreover, an issue is another factor that separates individual troubles from the public issues. An issue is a public matter that cherishes and threatens the public. According to Mills, an issue involves a crisis institution arrangement rather than that of an ordinary man. The third contemporary life example that separates individual trouble from public issues is unemployment. For instance, in a city, which has more than 100,000 population, unemployment individual person is referred to as a personal problem. Because it is a personal problem, the sociological imagination concept will only focus on the individual skill, character and his/her immediate opportunities. (SCOTT & NILSEN, 2013, p, 85) The solution will be found in the range of the individual opportunities. Moreover, in the same city if there are more than fifty thousand people who are unemployed, the problem becomes a public issue and we do not expect to find the solution within the range opportunities open to individual. The lack of job of 50,000 people in a city of 100,000 becomes a public issue while the lack of job of one individual is seen as a personal trouble.
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A war is another contemporary life example that Mill uses to explain the different between personal troubles and public issues. When a war occurs, the personal problems involve how to survive through the war, how to earn money out of the war, how to become a hero from the war. In addition, war becomes a personal trouble especially when individual concentrate on matters that will only benefit themselves alone. For example during the wartime a soldier may focus on how to rise ranks through the military, a commander may concentrate on how to make the war end. All these are viewed by Mills as personal problems. The public issues of war include the general impact the war brings to the society. These will involve the economic, the political, and the religious influence associated with the war. (MILLS, 2000, p, 8). Another contemporary example that differentiates personal problem and public issues is the marriage. In a marriage, a man and woman may have personal problems. However, when it comes to a divorce rate, the matter is differentiated into a public issue. For instance in a case where the rate of divorce is 250 out of 1000 marriages that occurred within the past four years, this becomes a public issue and not a personal problem. Marriage separates personal problem from the public issues when a divorce occurs.
In today, world people are still trapped in the twenty –first-century troubles, which Mills described in the twentieth century. The reason is that people in today society still cherish some set of values, which they do not feel threatened by them. By so doing, they consider themselves as ‘doing well’. When people cherish values, and they feel that the value threatens them, they still experience crisis whether the matter is personal trouble or public issues. Today people usually value the personal problems more than the public issues.
- MILLS, C. W., & GITLIN, T. (2000). The Sociological Imagination. Oxford, Oxford University
Press, USA. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=497661. - SCOTT, J., & NILSEN, A. (2013). C. Wright Mills and the sociological imagination:
contemporary perspectives. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=66650 - SCOTT, J., & NILSEN, A. (2013). C. Wright Mills and the sociological imagination:
contemporary perspectives. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=666507.
