Sociological Imagination In Food Essay

The culture of food has changed and progressed throughout this time. In the book, Feast for our eyes: Viewing films on food through new lenses; by Laura A. Lindenfeld, we see how in recent times food is growing not only in daily culture but also in entertainment. Television, Internet, and Books have advertised food in so many ways. Media has portrayed food as a desirable and a pleasant façade.

“Food, Inc.” is a documentary about the production of food that many people do not know about. The purpose of the film was to bring awareness of the industrial food production hoping that viewers will make better choices when eating. It was an interesting film because it showed footages of farms, slaughterhouses and food packaging factories, things that some people might not be aware of because it is not usually covered in the news. Aristotle’s means of persuasion was used in this film to demonstrate the main points. Ethos was used throughout the film.

Fast Food Nation Fast food restaurants are not all they’re cracked up to be. Fast Food Nation, written by Eric Schlosser, is an attempt to link the American eating style and food-production patterns. Schlosser presents an interesting perspective on how societies adapt to the way food is produced. He simply informs us how large the fast food industry is and how we are allowing it to grow. As the fast food industry grew the demand for hot, ready food was rising at substantial rates shortly after World War two.

Relevance between Food and Humans with Rhetorical Analysis In the modern industrial society, being aware of what the food we eat come from is an essential step of preventing the “national eating disorder”. In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he identifies the humans as omnivores who eat almost everything, which has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream unhealthiness, gradually causing the severe eating disorder consequences among people. Pollan offers his opinion that throughout the process of the natural history of foods, deciding “what should we have for dinner” can stir the anxiety for people based on considering foods’ quality, taste, price, nutrition, and so on.

It is the ability to view society as having a major impact on the way one lives. Sociological Imagination allows an individual to understand that the way he or she lives their life, may be influenced by the structure of society and its past. However, in retrospect, one can separate the perspective society inflicts on them from their own thoughts, and create a completely new outlook. The sociological imagination can be used to make sense of the world around us in many ways.

In early texts on European farming, agriculture was regarded as “agri and cultura, and food was seen as a vital part of the cultures and communities that produced it.” Today, industrial farming dominates, as food is seen as a product and farming is organized along factory lines (Pretty 54). In the past, agriculture was defined as field cultivation and the harvests were held in high esteem. In our modern world, food is not appreciated as it was and is now a foreign aspect of our lives in both how it is viewed and produced. In the essay “The Pleasures of Eating” by author Wendell Berry, he criticizes how today’s urban population is so blind to how their food is produced and how the food industry does not help people understand.

For decades, the fast food industry has occupied a monstrous portion of American society’s diet; weaving its thread of convenience into the tapestry of American culture, creating patterns that resemble a cheap and substandard tradition. America is so accustomed to this routine that society has become oblivious to fast food’s effects on the development of our culture. While the industry has transformed this nation, it has also deliberately changed the cultures of other nations as well by plaguing them with America fast food franchises. This is widely known “Americanizing”, which is placed American fast food restaurants around other countries in hopes to transition their culture to resemble America’s. Although fast food restaurants possess a beneficial convenience and rapid delivery of food, Americanizing countries outside the US has dramatically impacted various cultures and granted them to achieve America’s level of corruption.

Individuals within society are influenced by the socio-economic factors of the society which they inhabit. This essay will discuss Sociological imagination which was first mentioned by author C.W. Mills who wrote a book with the same title. The personal problem that will be discussed is childhood trauma, because it is broad this essay will focus more on depression and how it effects society on a larger scale. Lastly this essay will then show the advantages of using Social Imagination in our everyday life’s and how we can use it to the benefit of society on a wider scale. Social Imagination is the concept of being able to differentiate a personal problem from a problem that is affecting a wider society on a much larger scale.

Sociological imagination can be defined as one’s awareness of the impact that society has on their personal life because of the outside conditions and circumstances. The outside world create standards for people, even if they do not know that they are being looked at in this way. Therefore, society influences a person’s behavior and limits their free will. This theory is clearly demonstrated in The Truman Show. The movie helps to deepen my understanding of sociological imagination and helps me to see how the outside world controls my life.

Sociological imagination bridges the gap between a person’s life and the larger historical context it takes place in, it creates a understating of the type of life a person in that world can lead. Understanding history and the sociological circumstance of those times can equate to the status and daily experiences individuals must endure. Also, having a sociological imagination can bestow a person with the ability to understand their unique experiences and predict the possibility that is available to them in the future. This is the beauty and curse of sociological imagination, having the ability to grasp a social position means recognizing the limitations in place. The sociological imagination gifts people with the ability to ask questions that matter and think the kind of thoughts, which can shift a society towards

Created by sociologist C. Wright Mills, the term sociological imagination is used to assist in understanding human social behavior. This human behavior is usually either be patterned, assigned, or, guided by rules, which is where sociological imagination comes into the human life. Defined as an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, sociological imagination refers to the relationship between personal struggles and struggles of the society. According to Schaefer, this ability to comprehend social surroundings around us and in ourselves help in shaping us by incorporating the sociological imagination with examples of family transformations from the last fifty years.

An example of Sociological Imagination in todays world can be the issue of poverty. Poverty is rapidly growing in the United States day by day. The poverty levels in the last few years have greatly increased. When an issue like this starts to form, Sociological Imagination is a very helpful way to look at the issue to understand it better. One must take the issue of Poverty itself and examine it by putting the issue on two different scales.

Culture and memories are expressed through food. Everyone can identify themselves with a concrete culture and in every group there are numerous food dishes that satisfies one, or brings back peerless memories and feelings only they can relate to. Food itself has meaning attached to it, from the way it is prepared down to the ingredients used. Factors that influence food can be anything from practices and beliefs to the economy and distribution. Culinary traditions are important in helping express cultural identity.

Sociological Imagination The sociological imagination is the ability to look beyond one’s own everyday life as a cause for daily successes and failures and see the entire society in which one lives as potential cause for these things. Many individuals experience one or more social problems personally. For example, many people are poor and unemployed, many are in poor health, and many have family problems. When we hear about these individuals, it is easy to think that their problems are theirs alone, and that they and other individuals with the same problems are entirely to blame for their difficulties. Sociology imagination takes a different approach, as it stresses that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects

However, in our society we need to understand the importance of sociological imagination and how it helps us understand the society as a whole. In our society we have noticed