The social map and personal troubles

Think of society as a big map. Sociology helps you draw a social map showing where you are located: your place in a web of social relationships.

Each part of your identity puts you somewhere on this map. For example, you may belong to:

• the group of young people, who make up about forty per cent of India's population;
• a particular region and language group;
• an economic class, rich, middle or poor;
• a religion;
• a caste or tribe;
• and you are a girl or a boy, from a village or a city.

Each of these shapes your chances, your habits, and how others treat you.

The sociologist C. Wright Mills said that sociology helps us map the links between two things:

• personal troubles: worries that concern one person, such as 'Will I get a job?' or 'Can my family pay for college?';
• social issues: problems that concern large groups, such as unemployment, rising fees or discrimination.

Example: a young graduate worries about finding work. That feels like a private, personal trouble. But millions of young people face the same job market. Their worry is part of a social issue: unemployment. The cause lies in the economy and society, not only in the individual.

Seeing this link is what Mills called the sociological imagination: the ability to connect your own life to the wider society. Personal troubles are not separate from society; they often have public roots.