The everyday sociological imagination

Abstract

There is a nascent sociological imagination in us all. With or without sociological training, everyday people position their individual experiences in broader patterns. If public sociology aims to create knowledge about community-wide social problems, it is best pursued by empowering extant sociological imaginations in three ways. First, I suggest that sociological imaginations emerge from the highly social process of storytelling. Particularly when crises trouble previously sufficient vocabularies, stories offer insight into how certain groups of people are grappling with change. Second, the ‘strangeness’ of the researcher’s presence positions us well to draw study participants into deeper conversations about social problems. Finally, I call for member participation in identifying effective means of disseminating new knowledge. I demonstrate these approaches in a radio podcast project addended to my dissertation research in a rural Rust Belt community. Using high-quality recording equipment, I gathered, edited and distributed participants’ stories about current concerns over local radio. I conclude this chapter by discussing the successes and challenges of this project. With the communities we study, we can search for patterns within the endless churning of modernity and change and, in the process, empower our study participants to trace the links between their own biographies and history.