Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 1, 2025

Rethinking and Expanding the “Sociological Imagination”—A Methodological Awareness for Building an Independent Knowledge System in China

(Abstract)

Chen Yunsong

Building an independent sociological knowledge system in China requires addressing the “tensions between habitus and context,” including the suspension of problems by research agenda, the disembedding of local realities by external frameworks, and the fragmentation of history by rigid boundaries. These tensions between knowledge systems and spatiotemporal frameworks are not unique in the global history of sociology. Addressing them requires a rethinking and expansion of the “sociological imagination.” The sociological imagination envisioned by Chinese philosophy and social sciences features as a mental quality with greater cultural subjectivity and social pragmatism, and a capacity for knowledge paradigm shifts guided by cultural self-awareness. It stresses the integration of problem awareness, local consciousness, rootedness, and methodological and directional awareness. Apart from C. Wright Mills’ call to transform personal puzzles and historical experiences into public issues, Chinese sociologists should adopt a problem-oriented perspective to break research agendas, reconstruct the knowledge landscape through emblematic concepts, rebuild a great power mentality by reconnecting with historical roots, generate complex theories through empirical fieldwork, and steer research directions through a practice-oriented approach. Rethinking and expanding the sociological imagination is also an essential methodological awareness for developing an independent knowledge system in China.