C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination:A reappraisal

Abstract

nals and professional associations. The related methodological and ideological splintering appears to be both symptom and cause of the fragmentation in the social sciences. Indeed, the contemporary situation in sociology is the fragmen tation of the discipline?a proliferation of paradigms. It can be argued, however, that as regards some major aspects of American sociology, Mills's prescriptions have carried the day or at least made serious inroads. This is evident in the skepticism that now exists toward the claim that sociology, or any of the rest of the "social studies," as Mills liked to call them, are or can become value-free forms of inquiry. The view is now often voiced that moral, political and aesthetic values are inescapably embedded in sociological inquiry and should not be submerged under the imperatives of professional "objectivity" or the camouflage of scient ism. However, it is also to Mills's credit that he did not denigrate all quantitative statistical work nor call for its abandonment; rather, what he demanded was a more sophisticated use of empirical methods and their enrichment by the socio logical imagination. Those values which Mills thought social scientists should prize on behalf of the community are equality, reason, freedom and self-realization and, for themselves as academics, intellectual craftsmanship and commitment to progressive social change through political involvement. As regards the latter, Mills looked to schol arly endeavor, the writing of polemical tracts and to political activism as the