The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

To detect practical problems is to make evaluations. Often what is taken by the liberally practical to be a ‘problem' is whatever (1) deviates from middle-class, small-town ways of life, (2) is not in line with rural principles of stability and order, (3) is not in concurrence with the optimistic progressive slogans of ‘cultural lag,' and (4) does not conform with appropriate ‘social progress. ' But in many ways the nub of liberal practicality is revealed by (5) the notion of ‘adjustment' and of its opposite, ‘maladjustment.'

This notion is often left empty of any specific content; but often, too, its content is in effect a propaganda for conformity to those norms and traits ideally associated with the small-town middle class. Yet these social and moral elements are masked by the biological metaphor implied by the term ‘adaptation'; in fact the term is accompanied by an entourage of such socially bare terms as ‘existence' and ‘survival. ' The Concept of ‘adjustment,' by biological metaphor, is made formal and universal. But the actual use of the term often makes evident the acceptance of the ends and the means of the smaller community milieux. Many writers suggest techniques believed to be less disruptive than otherwise in order to attain goals as given; they do not usually consider whether or not certain groups or individuals, caught in underprivileged situations, can possibly achieve these goals without modification of the institutional framework as a whole.