C. Wright Mills delineates a rough definition of "sociological imagination" which could be thought of as a framework within tools for thought:
1. Combinatorial creativity<br />
2. Diffuse thinking, flâneur<br />
3. Changing perspective (how would x see this?) Writing dialogues is a useful method to accomplish this. (He doesn't state it, but acting as a devil's advocate is a useful technique here as well.)<br />
4. Collecting and lay out all the multiple viewpoints and arguments on a topic. (This might presume the method of devil's advocate I mentioned above 😀)<br />
5. Play and exploration with words and terms<br />
6. Watching levels of generality and breaking things down into smaller constituent parts or building blocks. (This also might benefit of abstracting ideas from one space to another.)<br />
7. Categorization or casting ideas into types
8. Cross-tabulating and creation of charts, tables, and diagrams or other visualizations
9. Comparative cases and examples - finding examples of an idea in other contexts and time settings for comparison and contrast
10. Extreme types and opposites (or polar types) - coming up with the most extreme examples of comparative cases or opposites of one's idea. (cross reference: Compass Points https://hypothes.is/a/Di4hzvftEeyY9EOsxaOg7w and thinking routines). This includes creating dimensions of study on an object - what axes define it? What indices can one find data or statistics on?
11. Create historical depth - examples may be limited in number, so what might exist in the historical record to provide depth.