Showing papers on "Relational sociology published in 2008"

Relational Thinking: A Critique of Co-Deterministic Theories of Structure and Agency*:

Abstract: This article presents a relational criticism of the “morphogenetic theory” of M. Archer. This theory is founded and representative of the most influential mode of perception of the social universe of the last few decades: co-determinism (structure ↔ agency). Co-determinism's influence can be explained by its integration of modern general presuppositions like freedom, individualism, and the quest for a new social order. By identifying five basic principles of relational sociology, we see that Archer's co-deterministic theory offers a complicated solution to avoid voluntarism and co-determinism, limits the potential of sociological imagination, cannot adequately see the fluidity of social processes, produces a certain reification of social structures and agency, and is based on an inconsistent use of egocentric and relational perspectives. These problems can be avoided if we use a relational approach (actor ↔ actor ⇒ structures) based on the study of complex and empirical trans-actions.

Relación social y realismo crítico en la obra de Pierpaolo Donati Social relationships and critical realism in Pierpaolo Donati's work

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the theoretic nucleus of relational sociology. Relational sociology begins with the observation that contemporary society is characterized by a progressive distancing between the human and the social and consequently the social is no longer conceived as a place for the human to inhabit. The human can be found outside of what constitutes the social context, in the internal being of individuals, tastes, preferences, individual feelings, or in the imagination and collective representation. Faced with such an historic outcome, relational