The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

DURING THE LAST quarter of a century, there has been a decisive shift in the administrative uses and political meanings of social science. The older liberal practicality of ‘social problems' still goes on, but it has been overshadowed by newer conservative uses of a managerial and manipulative sort. This new and illiberal practicality assumes various forms, but it is a general trend affecting the human disciplines as a whole. I may as well introduce my discussion of its ethos with an example of its major rationalization: ‘One final word of caution is needed to the student who plans to become a sociologist,' Paul Lazarsfeld has written.

He is likely to be worried about the state of the world. The danger of a new war, the conflict between social systems, the rapid social changes which he has observed in his country has probably made him feel that the study of social matters is of great urgency. The danger is that he may expect to be able to solve all current problems if he just studies sociology for a few years. This unfortunately will not be the case. He will learn to understand better what is going on around him. Occasionally he will find leads for successful social action. But sociology is not yet in the stage where it can provide a safe basis for social engineering. It took the natural sciences about 250 years between Galileo and the beginning of the industrial revolution before they had a major effect upon the history of the world. Empirical social research has a history of three or four decades. If we expect from it quick solutions to the world's greatest problems, if we demand of it nothing but immediately practical results, we will just corrupt its natural course.1