This understanding of the relationship between individual and wider society is what C. Wright Mills’ theory referred to as sociological imagination. According to the theory, this awareness helps people to connect situations happening in their lives to the broader social world. According to Mills, people can act in certain life situations if only they are aware of actions of other individuals in similar circumstances. In this philosophy essay example paper, Mills’ sociological concept assists to discuss the author’s experience with parking problem at the school parking lot and how it affected his or her school life.
Personal Explanation
One problem that has persisted and is common to many advanced learning institutions and high schools in the United States is the limited parking lots (Schmidt Westley, 2013). Initially, when the number of high school students who owned cars was smaller, one did not have to worry about missing parking spot or being fined for parking on unassigned space. Despite the introduction of the ticketing system, the parking area itself is not big enough to accommodate all the ticketed vehicles. The policy, therefore, means that buying a ticket is not a guarantee for a parking space. There were several occurrences when writer experienced arguments with the school’s parking management. However, to make study more specific, he/she shall narrow to the cases of this year only. In general, the limited spaces available are taken on the basis of “first come - first serve”. Thus, people have to spend a lot of time looking for parking spot among numerous parked vehicles.
Worse of all is the fact that one risks being fined if he or she parks in any other place, different from the one indicated on the ticket. This year alone the author had to pay the penalty on five occasions for wrong parking. Thus, I worry whether I find a parking space or not every time I think of driving to school. Moreover, the writer also has to carry extra money for the fines just in case. For instance, last week on Friday the writer was fined for illegal parking which lasted for about just one minute. He/she had temporarily parked the vehicle outside the assigned area while still checking for available space. When he/she came back to drive the car to the free space he/she noticed, he/she was surprised to find fine ticket for wrongful parking. All attempts to explain the reason for temporarily parking outside the assigned parking lot area were futile. The angry author paid the fine, forgot the space he/she had located, left the car in the place where he/she was fined for parking, and went to class. Evidently, writer was very frustrated after spending the time trying to find a parking spot only to be fined and fail to use the noticed space.
Sociological Imagination
In a capital economy (Conley, 2015, Ch. 14) like the one of the US, people tend to measure their social well-being with their material possession. There exists a natural force of competition that makes people want to own more and seem to be wealthier than the rest. This material culture (Conley, 2015, Ch. 3) makes students of high schools and colleges willing to arrive by private cars, including even those who can comfortably use other means of transport. As a result, a new problem such as lack of enough parking spaces has emerged. Students, therefore, have to compete for the limited parking spots.
According to the study by La Vigne (2007), congestion around schools is a result of transport modes, population trend, and the physical design of schools. He further noted that lack of enough parking spaces in educational establishments and their campuses varies due to the time of the day and the number of students who have come to school on their cars. Considering the fact that the writer is one of the students who reside quite far from school, he/she has to drive a car to and from campus. Apart from that, it makes the author unable to use other modes of transport such as public buses and bicycle, since it is more efficient and rational to use a private car.
It is appropriate to explain the writer’s experience using the conflict theory propounded by Karl Marx. According to it, he claimed that the conflicts in the society are a result of competition for the limited resources. Considering that the parking lot at the school was not big enough to accommodate every vehicle, some students could not find a parking spot and that resulted in another conflict with the management. Due to the bureaucracy (Conley, 2015, Ch. 15) of the parking management team, it becomes difficult for students to explain themselves when accused of having parked wrongly. For example, in the case of last Friday incident, the author was trying to find a solution in the aforementioned situation but the parking lot management refused to listen to his/her attempt to explain himself/herself.
Another problem that the writer and other students face is that the school does not ticket more than one vehicle for the students. This means that once one model of a car is registered with a student, that student cannot be given a second ticket for another model. Students, therefore face difficulties when their ticketed vehicle breaks down and they have to use another one. In the days when the author wants to use a different car or feels that he/she is late and will not find space in the parking lot, he/she parks at a nearby compound for a fee cheaper than the fine imposed by the school parking management. Considering that the aforementioned incident occurred on Friday, the author was confident that there would be a space in the car park hence he/she would park near the school. However, though there was space, the author had to pay the penalty for wrong parking which lasted just for one minute.
Social Trend and Statistics
As the population grows and the number of school intakes continues to rise, demand for social services increases accordingly. However, the schools continue to enroll more students but fail to create more parking lots or expand the existing ones. Instead, the problem is slowly turning into a revenue collection possibility for the educational establishments. Some schools and universities give more permits that the spaces available in their parking lots on purpose. For example, the University of California which has a total space of eleven thousand spots across its six campuses offers up to thirteen thousand permits annually (Porter, 2016). Some institutions include their parking charge into tuition fee which makes it mandatory for every student to pay even despite that not everyone has a car. Clearly, the problem is becoming a business opportunity for schools and colleges. The problem can be controlled only if schools smartly manage the parking system.
Conclusion
To conclude, the writer has used social imagination to understand the relationship between his life experience and the society. The author exploited the concepts of social imagination and conflict theory to discuss his/her experience regarding the parking problem at educational establishments. Thus, the growing demand for the limited parking facilities is the problem the students face and which makes them compete for the parking spaces. It was not easy for the writer to accept the fine; however, by contextualizing his/her experience, author acknowledged that all students face the same circumstances. Nonetheless, the problem of the exceeding number of parking permits ought to be eradicated.