THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION - Max Planck Society

THESOCIOLOGICALIMAGINATIONC. WRIGHT MILLSNEW YORKO xford University Press1959 AppendixOn Intellectual CraftsmanshipTO THE INDIVIDUAL social scientist who feels himself a part of the classic tradition, social science is the practice of a craft. Aman at work on problems of substance, he is among those who are quickly made impatient and weary by elaborate discussions ofmethod-and-theory-in-general; so much of it interrupts his proper studies. It is much better, he believes, to have one account by aworking student of how he is going about his work than a dozen 'codifications of procedure' by specialists who as often as nothave never done much work of consequence. Only by conversations in which experienced thinkers exchange information abouttheir actual ways of working can a useful sense of method and theory be imparted to the beginning student. I feel it useful,therefore, to report in some detail how I go about my craft.

shaped by work -in-progress and to some extent guide that work. It is for such interludes that a professional association finds its intellectual reason for being. And for them too your own file is needed. Under various topics in your file there are ideas, personal notes, excerpts from books, bibliographical items and outlines of projects.

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