Use Your Sociological Imagination

We have spent plenty of time talking about C. Wright Mills' concept of the sociological imagination....taking what is in the world around us and looking at it through the lens of Sociology. I have to say that this actually came up over the weekend in my own life. I went to Sycamore Speedway to watch some dirt track demo derby type races and I was looking at the cars as they went by....because....well, that is what you do when you are at a car race. I was thinking back to the discussion we had in class last week about how cars serve a primary (manifest) function of getting you from place to place and many secondary (latent) functions, such as showing status (you are "cooler" if you have a car) and wealth (you have a "cool" car). As I watched junkers like this go around the track (and slam into each other), I thought of another latent function of cars: pure entertainment. Any of you watch car races? Yes, those cars get you from point A to point B, but they do it in circle, 200 times in a race, really fast, and point A and B are the same (start and finish line). Did I mention fast? :) Think about the different experiences you have on a daily basis. Can you figure out the manifest and latent functions of those experiences? Hmmmmm..... :)