Essay Example on the Power of Sociological Imagination

Introduction

Griffiths, Keirns, Strayer, Sadler, Cody-Rydzewski, Scaramuzzo, Jones (2015) define sociological imagination as the capability of an individual to see things socially and deduce how they interrelate and influence each other on a societal level. This involves an individual’s ability to set personal experiences aside and to begin looking at these challenges as part of the broader societal issues. This concept was published in 1959 by the sociologist C.Wright Mill (Griffiths et al., 2015). He proposed that an individual’s experiences and the broader societal circumstances under which they lie are a result of the historical context on which they stand and the prevailing conditions at that particular time. He thereby insisted on having a “worldview” vision when it came to assessing all parameters in the society. An example of a concept applicable to this concept is poverty. From a personal level, poverty may involve an individual’s inability to meet their basic needs. However, this particular experience is part of a larger societal issue, say, unemployment or unequal distribution of resources. This paper will discuss both individual and societal perspectives of poverty during the covid-19 era and how it fits into the structural-functional theory.

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Personal Situation

The Covid 19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow on both the physical and economic aspects of the society. I have witnessed tremendous suffering and loss of life in my society for the better part of this year. While this may be the most visible impact of this pandemic, poverty has affected far more people than the disease itself. There have been massive job losses, affecting most people in the world. I have not been spared as most employed members of my family have been laid off their jobs. The purchase power of my family has declined gradually since the pandemic began. The servicing of loans, as well as paying off our mortgages, has become a financial nightmare. While my family is bearing these harsh adjustments, job losses and financial constraints are a societal issue. Millions of other people have lost their sources of income and are facing similar challenges. The impact of the pandemic as affected society as a whole. The economy of the entire world has taken a recession that is gradually worsening. The poverty levels are increasing each day, with millions of people on the verge of starvation.

Theory

The Structural-Functional Theory

This theory pictures society as a structure with interrelated parts that work together for the wellbeing of its members. This theory originated from the works of Herbert Spencer, who likened the parts of society to the human body (Griffiths et al., 2015). The body consists of many parts and systems that all work in coordination to ensure the wellbeing of the individual. The interrelated parts referred to in this theory are social institutions such as the government, healthcare, economy, education, among others. These institutions work together to promote the stability of society. Poverty is a result of malfunctions in social institutions. While social stratification is a characteristic of all societies, the pandemic brought about unusual changes in this setup, resulting in rampant poverty. This pandemic disorganized existing social hierarchy, with even the wealthiest and most powerful people being forced to declare bankruptcy.

When the pandemic broke out, millions of people fell sick, overwhelming an ill-prepared healthcare sector. The available human resource of medical personnel has been stretched thin, barely keeping up with the patient influx. Available resources were all redirected to the arising health crisis. This step has particularly deprived other essential sectors like the agricultural industry of the much needed resources. As stated by Griffiths et al. (2015), the continued health of the economy is the health of the nation. The social institutions could not adapt fast enough to the impacts of the pandemic. The sector of infrastructure was severely hit, with countries closing their borders leading to subsequent declines in international trade. Businesses had to shut down, and people lost their jobs to the imposed lockdowns that were intended to control the spread of the disease. Governments were destabilized as most of them could not agree on the best way to deal with the fast-spreading novel virus. While the disease has a general global outlook, there are differences in its impacts on the core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral nations (Griffiths et al., 2015). The core or developed countries have better health systems than the peripheral (underdeveloped) nations, hence had more health resources available to handle the pandemic. The new normal disrupted the social institutions, which are usually interrelated. This had a ripple effect that led to a near economic shutdown all over the world. Many countries in the world closed down learning institutions indefinitely in the wake of the new coronavirus. This will cause a delay in producing graduates or individuals with adequate skills required in the various economic sectors. This fuels negative growth in the economy even further. All these disruptions have culminated in increasing poverty levels.

Statistics

Millions of people have lost their jobs since the commencement of this pandemic. In the United States alone, 20 million people had lost their jobs by April this year (Congressional Research Service, 2020). By the end of May 2020, approximately 40.8 million Americans had filed for unemployment insurance (Congressional Research Service, 2020). The pandemic has affected multiple sectors of the world economy. One such sector is education, with over 100 countries closing down all learning institutions globally (Nicola, Alsafi, Sohrabi, Kerwan, Iosifidis & Agha, 2020). These figures paint a global picture, as similar trends are seen in almost every country in the world. This is a reflection of the millions of people likely to be living below poverty levels, barely able to afford basic needs.

Conclusion

The sociological imagination was first published by the sociologist C.Wright Mill in 1956. Mill pointed out that an individual’s experiences are part of the larger social structure. The financial and economic constraints caused by the covid-19 are being felt my most countries and households in the world, including my own. Millions of people have lost their jobs and are now living in a new life of poverty. While this may be an individual experience for most people, society at large has been affected by this disease. This pandemic has affected most social institutions in today’s society using the structural, functional theory. These include governments, the global economy, education, and healthcare, among others. Healthcare systems were overwhelmed with the high numbers of patients coming down with the disease. Countries were locked down in a bid to control the spread of the virus, while resources were redirected to deal with the pandemic. All these disruptions have led to the recession of the global economy and vast increases in poverty levels.

References

Congressional Research Service (2020). The Congressional Research Service. Global Economic Effects of COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R46270.pdf

Griffiths, H.,Keirns, N., Strayer, E., Sadler, T., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Scaramuzzo, G., Jones, F. (2015). Introduction to Sociology (2nd ed.). OpenStax at Rice University. Retrieved fromhttps://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e?Book%20details

Nicola, M., Alsafi, Z., Sohrabi, C., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C. & Agha, R. (2020). International Journal of Surgery. The Socio-Economic Implications of the Coronavirus and COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review.