Stretching the Sociological Imagination: An Inquiry into Sociology's Theory of Change

This article explores the theory of change embedded within introductory sociology textbooks, arguing that the discipline’s pedagogical focus truncates the sociological imagination. While textbooks exhaustively critique bureaucracies as alienating, they disproportionately idealize social movements as the primary mechanism for progressive social transformation. Drawing on Carl Jung’s The Undiscovered Self and Christian sociological frameworks, the author contends this emphasis over-socializes individuals into collective "mass man" thinking that fosters eventual disillusionment. Expanding the sociological imagination requires recovering a robust understanding of institutional and bureaucratic reform, alongside cultivating the inner life and moral agency of the self-reflective individual.