Вызовы и ресурсы социологического воображения

Социологические исследования. 2025. № 3. С. 3–14.

Abramov R.

The significant place of sociological imagination in theoretical production in sociology is substantiated and the limitations of sociological imagination in the version of C.R. Mills for a more active inclusion in the process of theorizing are shown. The significance of sociological imagination in sociological thinking is shown by referring to the ideas of E. Hughes, A. Rose, E. Abbott. The bottlenecks in the conceptualization of sociological imagination by leading sociologists-theorists (Z. Bauman, P. Sztompka, E. Giddens), who follow the logic of Mills's reasoning in their interpretations of sociological imagination, are identified. Analytical resources for revising the concept of sociological imagination from the point of view of the development of sociological theorizing and approaches to mastering sociological imagination in the course of professional education at universities are revealed. The thesis on the fundamental insufficiency of the understanding of sociological imagination as subjectivistic and associated with the context of the biographical experience of a sociologist, which was formed at earlier stages of the development of sociological theory, is substantiated. The incompleteness of such a definition of sociological imagination is shown in the perspective of the development of theorizing in sociology with an emphasis on "grand theories". Recommendations are developed for the reassembly and implementation of the updated concept of sociological imagination in the practice of theorizing and as an element of professional socialization.

Keywords: социологическое воображение, social imagination, Зигмунд Бауман, Zigmunt Bauman

Publication based on the results of: The diversity of forms, effects and barriers to integration of modern Russian society in synchronic and diachronic dimensions (2025)