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The power of the sociological perspective lies not just in changing individual lives but in transforming society. As C. Wright Mills saw it, society, not people's personal failings, is the cause of poverty and other social problems. Using the sociological imagination, then, brings people together by turning personal problems into public issues. In the following excerpt* Mills explains the need for a sociological imagination: When a society becomes industrialized, a peasant becomes a worker; a …

…quality of mind that will help them to [see] . . . what is going on in the world and . . . what may be happening within themselves. It is this quality . . . that . . . may be called the sociological imagination. *In this excerpt, C. Wright Mills uses "man" and male pronouns to apply to all people. Note that even an outspoken critic of society such as Mills reflected the conventional writing practices of his time as far as gender was concerned.