A blog for sociological information and insights created by students and faculty connected to the University of Warwick. Publishes timely articles of relevance on the discipline and disciplinary subject matter. Also publishes reviews and commentary on multimedia. This blog exposes students to sociological insights from other countries.
Type of Material:
The Sociological Imagination is a collection of articles on diverse range of topics written by professional sociologists. As with any blog, there are videos and images embedded in the articles.
Recommended Uses:
These blogs and podcasts would be useful for self-paced student research, especially in digital sociology, public sociology, higher education, media, and C. Wright Mills. The site is kept current, so many of the blogs would be useful for research on current events. Conferences and call for papers would be excellent for students looking to present their original research, especially in England. It would serve as a model for other universities or sociology clubs wanting to start their own digital version of a student journal.
Technical Requirements:
No specific browser required; site made with WordPress. Some resources involve Twitter, podcasts, email subscription.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The major goals of the site appear to be to initiate sociologically-informed discussions about various topics. The learning goals are not explicitly stated on the site, but one goal might be to provide students/visitors with a sociological perspective on contemporary issues. In the language of C.W. Mills, many of the posts appear to be explaining why private troubles are actually public issues.
Target Student Population:
This blog is applicable to courses aimed at all levels of students. It provides students a good idea of all the topics sociologist study. Some of the material is designed for students doing original research in sociology at the MA or PhD level.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
No special skills are required to access the content on this page, but the site is best suited to students who have already taken an introductory sociology course.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The intellectual quality of the content is quite high. The posts are clearly written by professional sociologists, and many of the insights one finds on The Sociological Imagination are valuable.
Concerns:
The site is a blog, where ideas are in various stages of articulation.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The strength of The Sociological Imagination is that it features content from authors who use a sociological lens to engage contemporary issues. The content is sociologically informed and often very relevant. As an educational tool instructors could draw from it in order to engage students who think sociology isn’t relevant to the experiences of their everyday lives.
Concerns:
Some of the material may be too advanced or specialized to be of benefit to some sociology students. Much of the material is genuinely trying to build on and push against cutting edge arguments in the professional literature.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The search box makes the material more usable -- easy to find blogs related to a particular topic. I searched several terms and was quickly rewarded with several interesting blogs and other media. The blogs are cross referenced by theme, tags, archived by dates, and recent additions.
Other Issues and Comments:
None.
Creative Commons:
Search by ISBN?
It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have
entered as an ISBN number?
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
