Personal biographies
The global sociological imagination is a concept based on the assumption that our personal biographies are collective products, actions, and inactions of numerous people from different corners of the world. This concept is against the idea that people build their own biographies alone without the help of others. Proponents of global sociological imagination, such as Charles Quist-Adade, argues that our life stories are also made of people whose path may never cross ours in our lifetime.
For instance, most of the Canadians eating chocolate or enjoying a cup of coffee may not be aware that the coffee or chocolate contains beans from cocoa trees planted in Teawiah a remote village within the Eastern region of Ghana. The farmer who planted the cocoa trees, therefore, partly contributes to their happiness but in different ways. During their lifetime, they might not get the chance to meet this farmer who helps in developing their biographies.
As Quist-Adade argues, Global sociological Imagination is an extension of sociological imagination, as explained in 1959 by Charles Wright Mills, an American sociologist. According to the sociologist, there is a relationship between individual biographies and societal history, present with the future, and private problems with public ones. Embracing Global sociological imaginations helps human beings to develop intense awareness of the fact that their actions have ramifications far beyond their immediate environment as well as their shores.
The money paid to cocoa farmers in Ghana helps in financing education in the country through the Cocoa Marketing Board Scholarship Scheme. Education for some children in Ghana would be impossible without Canadians purchasing cocoa products such as chocolate and cocoa drinks. Were it not for such programs, Quist-Adade, who is a Ghanaian-Canadian professor, would not have gotten education to the levels of being a professor.