The New Sociological Imagination: Facing the Challenges of a New Millennium

This article introduces the reader to the problems and the topics treated by the contributors to this special issue of the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. It offers a reflection on the concept of sociological imagination conceived as a key element for the task of facing the intellectual challenges of the present times. What is sociological imagination? How has it been used by the main cultivators of sociology throughout history? And particularly, how is sociological imagination being renewed nowadays by some of the most successful exponents of sociological research? These are some questions considered in this introduction. The new sociological imagination uses theory, history, empirical facts, logical formalization, systematic analysis, creativity, local knowledge, moral judgment and inspiration. What distinctively constitutes its elements is not just the search for correlations between abstract variables, but the search for pertinent relationships among facts, moral problems, structural conditions, historical concerns, personal worries and ethical values of contemporary societies. The new sociological imagination is a search for satisfactory ways of understanding the contemporary world in a rational, communicable, telling and coherent way, while also contributing to the development of the public sphere and a collective understanding of social issues.