How to Develop Your Sociological Imagination for Empathy and Social Justice

Connecting the dots between daily life and social structures is a necessary requirement for empathy and social justice

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The other day I had the honor of having breakfast with my one of my favorite Graduate School professors. Our daughters were talking about books and games they liked to play and I was amazed.

I said, “I just do not have that kind of imagination!”

My professor said, “You have a Sociological Imagination.”

And that, indeed, I do have. If only it involved the occasional fairy, mischievous elf, or talking animals.

The Sociological Imagination is something that is a blessing and a curse.

Now, I would not trade it for anything. I would not give it up or exchange it. But wow, seeing the world as it is — in all of its connections to systems and structures and things that are vastly powerful due to historical and institutional protection and enshrinement, — it’s a lot to deal with on the daily.

When we know that things we are facing, or that people we know are facing, or that people everywhere are facing, are actually connected to massive institutions — namely, the three predominant causes of all issues in our…