Showing papers on "Relational sociology published in 2015"

The Relational Subject

Abstract: Many social theorists now call themselves 'relational sociologists', but mean entirely different things by it. The majority endorse a 'flat ontology', dealing exclusively with dyadic relations. Consequently, they cannot explain the context in which relationships occur or their consequences, except as resultants of endless 'transactions'. This book adopts a different approach which regards 'the relation' itself as an emergent property, with internal causal effects upon its participants and external ones on others. The authors argue that most 'relationists' seem unaware that analytical philosophers, such as Searle, Gilbert and Tuomela, have spent years trying to conceptualize the 'We' as dependent upon shared intentionality. Donati and Archer change the focus away from 'We thinking' and argue that 'We-ness' derives from subjects' reflexive orientations towards the emergent relational 'goods' and 'evils' they themselves generate. Their approach could be called 'relational realism', though they suggest that realists, too, have failed to explore the 'relational subject'.

Lifelines: Desistance, Social Relations, and Reciprocity

Abstract: This article draws on the life stories of a friendship group of men in their 40s who offended together in their youth and early adulthood. By exploring these interrelated narratives, we reveal individual, relational, and structural contributions to the desistance process, drawing on Donati's relational sociology. In examining these men's social relations, this article demonstrates the central role of friendship groups, intimate relationships, families of formation, employment, and religious communities in change over the life course. It shows how, for different individuals, these relations triggered reflexive evaluation of their priorities, behaviors, and lifestyles, but with differing results. However, despite these differences, the common theme of these distinct stories is that desistance from crime was a means of realizing and maintaining the men's individual and relational concerns, with which continued offending became (sometimes incrementally) incompatible. In the concluding discussion, we explore some of the ethical implications of these findings, suggesting that work to support desistance should extend far beyond the typically individualized concerns of correctional practice and into a deeper and inescapably moral engagement with the reconnection of the individual to social networks that are restorative and allow people to fulfill the reciprocal obligations on which networks and communities depend. Keywords: Juvenile justice Language: en

Relational Sociology and Culture

Abstract: In this paper I outline a framework for a relational sociology of culture. I begin by briefly defining relational sociology and contrasting it with both individualistic and holistic alternatives. Culture, I suggest, is an inherently relational concept and needs to be theorised and analysed as such. This argument is briefly elaborated through a discussion of the generation and diffusion of culture by way of interaction and social networks. The respective contributions of Tarde, Durkheim, Merleau-Ponty, and Wittgenstein are given particular attention. In the final part of the paper I introduce and discuss Howard Becker's notion of ‘art worlds’, drawing out and elaborating upon its relational foundations whilst also further developing it through a more sustained reflection upon both the facilitative potential of social networks and their shaping, as hypothesised by Peter Blau (and developed by Miller McPherson and Noah Mark), by way of homophilic attraction in ‘social space’. The paper covers a lot of ground...

Relational sociology, pragmatism, transactions and social fields

Abstract: Starting from the idea that relational sociology has been founded on various and incompatible social ontologies, I argue that it is at risk of losing its raison d'etre if we do not answer two fundamental practical and ontological questions: (1) Why do we need relational sociology? and (2) What do we study in relational sociology? In this respect, I propose a deep, transactional sociology partly and freely inspired by the work of J. Dewey which clearly detaches relational sociology from social determinism and co-determinism.

Theorizing social networks: the relational sociology of and around Harrison White

Abstract: This paper offers an overview of relational sociology as developed by and around Harrison White. Relational sociology provides a substantial account of social networks, conceptualizing them as real social structures interwoven with meaning. Forms of meaning connected to network configurations (as part of their ‘domains’) include stories, identities, social categories (including role categories), and institutions. Recent advances lead to a network perspective on culture, and to an emphasis on communicative events in networks. In contrast to other strands of relational sociology, the approach aims at a close connection between empirical research and theoretical reflection. Theoretical concepts and arguments are geared at empirical applicability in network research, rather than mainly providing a theoretical description of the social world. Finally, the author's own version of relational sociology is sketched: social networks are seen as dynamic constructions of relational expectations. These emerge and deve...

Relational sociology: a well-defined sociological paradigm or a challenging ‘relational turn’ in sociology?

Abstract: In this paper I present and summarize the theoretical proposals of four leading scholars of the so-called ‘relational sociology’. First of all I try to contextualize its emergence and developments ...

A Social Relational Network Perspective for MPA Science

Abstract: This mini-review outlines the emergence and benefit of applying a structurally explicit, social relational network perspective to inform the establishment and governance of marine protected area (MPAs) and MPA networks. This is an important conservation research and policy frontier. We draw on concepts from relational sociology and social network analysis to highlight the theoretical foundations of a social relational network perspective. Selected examples are used to: (1) illustrate the analytical utility and application of this network perspective to systematically examine attributes recognized as important for MPA establishment and governance; and (2) provide new insights on crucial practices and processes (e.g., knowledge exchange), core social attributes (e.g., social capital), and the roles and positions of diverse MPA actors.

Field theory and educational practice: Bourdieu and the pedagogic qualities of local field positions in educational contexts

Abstract: Bourdieu’s version of field theory has had an impressive impact on the ways that sociologists of education conceptualize educational practices. These accounts tend to focus on the varying levels of ontological complicity established between students’ cultural dispositions and educational institutions. In this paper, the wisdom of these accounts is acknowledged but it is also suggested that Bourdieu’s field theory does not go far enough to detail the ways that positions in local educational fields embody pedagogic qualities and action trajectories. Drawing on insights from social psychology and relational sociology, a field theory for local educational action is outlined that more adequately accounts for the ways that students and educators directly experience and act upon curricular and pedagogic qualities in educational settings. An empirical example is then offered of the authors’ claims within the context of curricular tracking/streaming, and the article concludes by considering the practical and polit...

Sociological Ambivalence and Funeral Consumption

Abstract: This article builds on Hillcoat-Nalletamby and Phillips’ (2011) conceptualization of sociological ambivalence within the relational framework to examine a particular consumption practice, the funeral. We develop understanding of social, cultural and relational issues that arise from the experience associated with funeral-arranging. This is not a voluntary behaviour but one engaged with through force of circumstance and which involves commercial and relational decisions. Drawing on data from 10 interviews from a larger UK study, we focus on ambivalence surrounding choice and its impact on relations, showing how sentiments including love, obligation, regret and revenge evolve and transform past and future relationships.

Dissociation, unconscious and social theory : towards an embodied relational sociology

Abstract: The recent attention which has been paid in sociology to the role of embodiment, intersubjectivity and reflexivity has resulted in the development of new social theories which aim to provide better explanations of structure and agency interactions and the dynamics of self and identity formation. In the process of the development of these theories, social theorists have often communicated with other relevant disciplines such as social psychology and psychoanalysis. Clearly, new developments in these related disciplines are likely to have relevance for micro-sociological theories. The aim of this project is to further develop modern micro-sociological theories in the light of new ideas in social psychology and recent understandings in psychoanalysis. Drawing on the ideas of relational psychoanalysis and relational sociology I have tried to define a dynamic unconscious in social theory and a fluid conceptualization of self and identity by applying the concept of dissociation as the key mechanism for shifting between different self-states. Also, based on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer, the relationship between reflexivity and habitus is explored, different levels of reflexivity and various forms of consciousness are considered, and these interactions are further investigated using the two examples of sports training and hypnotic involuntariness. Using hypnosis as a model, the development of social self and embodied agency is explored in depth in this context. Furthermore, as a real-life example, the role of subjectivity, relationality and embodiment in doctor-patient relationships is investigated using findings in the research fields of hypnosis and placebo. In conclusion, based on the conceptualization made in this research, the place of two consciousness modalities (discursive and practical) and forms of unconscious (psychological and psychoanalytical) is clarified. Finally, the implications of this categorization for understanding core concepts such as agency, self and identity are explored and some suggestions are made for the further development and application of the theories explored in this project.

Social Theory for Today: Making Sense of Social Worlds

Abstract: Introduction: The Narcissism of Minor Differences Social Theory and Crisis Positivist Turn: Auguste Comte Marx's Turn Nietzsche's Turn: Max Weber and Georg Simmel Ideological Turn: Antonio Gramsci and Georg Lukacs Reflexive Turn: Otto Neurath and Empirical Sociology Modernist Turn: Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer Critical Turn: The Frankfurt School Negative Turn: Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas Quotidian Turn: Henri Lefebvre Corporeal Turn: Maurice Merleau-Ponty Pragmatic Turn: Social theory in the US Cultural Turn: Social Theory in France and Britain Relational Turn: Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu Conclusion

Realism and Contingency

Abstract: This paper constitutes an extended response to Athanasia Chalari's paper The Causal Impact of Resistance, which suggests that one may derive from internal conversations a causal explanation of resistance. In the context of our engagements with critical realism and digital research into social movements, we review Chalari's main argument, before applying it to a concrete case: the student protests in London, 2010. Whilst our account is sympathetic to Chalari's focus on interiority, we critique the individualism that is implicit in her argument, arguing that it emerges because of an underlying neglect of the relational aspects of resistance. Instead, we offer a relational realist analysis that treats resistance as process within an ontologically stratified account of reality that is mindful of the contingency of political acts. Taking this route, we establish resistance as an emergent relation, generative of distinctive “relational goods” in the context of collective action, which we locate at different levels of reality, as we move from an analysis of individual to collective reflexivity. In doing so we offer a sympathetic critique of Chalari, building on the thought provoking arguments contained within it, whilst also making a contribution to the theorisation of social movements and the “relational turn” within realist social theory (Archer 2010, 2012).

Culture and Social Networks

Abstract: Since the early 1990s, social networks and culture are increasingly seen as intertwined and studied in conjunction. This “cultural turn” of network research is based on the relational sociology of Harrison White and others. It links classical structuralism with cultural analysis. Three approaches to the linkage of culture and social networks can be distinguished: The first traces cultural developments, for example, in science or in art, to network constellations: collective identities arise out of densely connected networks; new styles emerge at the intersection of network clusters from the combination of previously unconnected repertoires. The second approach views social networks themselves as intricately interwoven with culture. Roles in a network (e.g., kinship roles) are built on culturally available blueprints (institutions). As are relationships that varyingly adopt relationship frames such as “love” or “patronage.” Styles and collective identities develop from network constellations and shape them in turn. The third approach analyzes culture itself as a network of symbols and concepts. Their meaning lies in the relations to other concepts and symbols. Network analyses of culture have frequently analyzed the meaning of role categories and of relationship frames, thus linking the three approaches. Areas of particular interest for going forward include research on micro-events in networks, the interplay of networks with ethnic categories and cultural differences, and the role of networks in societal fields. Keywords: social networks; culture; institution; role; relationships; style; collective identity; category; identity; story

Nternet and prospects of sociology

Abstract: This article examines how the Internet and new data analytics challenges established epistemologies. Opportunities and limitations of two different sociologic approaches related to the social network analysis – “social network analysis” and “relational sociology” – are considered by the author. With the emergence of the Internet several new topics have been put on the sociological agenda: social network analysis, big data; rethinking the methodology of data collection and production; changing nature of the object of sociology. The basic conclusions are as follows. The online space, from its origins until now, has been an amorphous social phenomenon without existing structures (social forms), without institutional hierarchy but with strong and frequent new semiotic streams, with a topology not yet known to us. Credible hypotheses including such categories as “human”, “culture”, “structures” should be proposed to understand and forecast the evolution of the complicated social systems. Sociologists will get rid of the naturalistic absolutization of such categories as “space”, “time”, “social structures”. New practices and social technologies will be introduced to better understand and predict things, events and meanings. The semiotics will take strong positions in sociological studies; it will deal with the observed socio-cultural phenomena (system of proximity, myths, fashion, behavior patterns) providing researchers with an “access code” to the everyday life.

Реляционная Социология Пьерпаоло Донати

Abstract: This article provides an overview of the relational theory of society, established at the end of the last century by the Italian philosopher and sociologist Pierpaolo Donati (born 1946). Its creation was the result of a long philosophical and scientific research of tools for the transformation of modern Western society, which, in Donati’s opinion, was in a state of acute crisis. Linking this crisis to the fact that modern society tends to isolate an individual from all interpersonal relations, Donati suggests that we should look at any social fact from the perspective of social relationships. His paradigm is, therefore, based on the proposition that “society is relation”. Over the past three decades, relational sociology became widely known in Italy and is currently being developed in the writings of a number of both beginning and prominent Italian scientists. In addition, a significant part of the work by Pierpaolo Donati and his associates is published in English as well. The purpose of this review is to present the relational theory of society to the Russian-speaking audience.

Raíces del problema institucional argentino: una reflexión

Abstract: This paper seeks to provide a reflection on the evolving conditions of patronage networks in Argentina. Bourdieu and Luhmann’s sociological theories offer different perspectives from which it is possible to understand the dichotomy between individualism and institutional order in a society marked by mistrust. Then, Donati and Archer’s relational sociology can outline a way to overcome the patrimonial regimes that destroy social life.

Introduction: Relational Sociology: reflexive and realist

Abstract: The rationale for this book Increasingly, theorists of many different persuasions are presenting themselves as ‘Relational Sociologists’. Yet it is difficult to see how there could be a sociological theory that was not concerned with relations in some sense of the term. The problem is that those appropriating this adjective for their theorizing mean very different things by it: ontologically, epistemologically, and methodologically. When Relational Sociology is proclaimed as a ‘manifesto’, the expectation is that its signatories will be endorsing at least the main planks of an ‘explanatory programme’; but even this is not the case. Moreover, ‘manifestos’ issued in any domain are promissory notes; what they promise is to perform a task better than did their predecessors. The trouble here is that the best known versions of ‘Relational Sociology’ – largely North American – do not even address the scope of this enterprise as traditionally conceived in the discipline. Sociology came into being to seek answers to four questions about the social order: ‘Where have we come from?’, ‘What is it like now?’, ‘Where is it going?’, and ‘What is to be done?’ These are all realist questions: there is a real social world with real properties inhabited by real people who collectively made the past and whose causal powers are already shaping the future. One way in which Weber expressed the vocation of sociology was to discover why things are ‘so’ and not ‘otherwise’. In other words, the purpose of the discipline was explanatory. Both authors of this book situate themselves uncompromisingly in this tradition and in their previous works have struggled to contribute something to answering all four key questions. This distinguishes us from nearly all of those today who term themselves ‘Relational Sociologists’ and who retreat further and further from trying to explain anything. We can illustrate this most pungently by simply asking: ‘What do those proclaiming their approaches to be distinctively “relational” contribute to our understanding of what is happening today in our one global society?’ We are not exigently demanding a grand theory, but more modestly asking for a statement of their explanatory programme.

Феномен спорта в дискурсе экономической социологии

Abstract: The article is devoted to some fundamental issues of the sociology of sport. As a research approach we take modern relational sociology. With its help one can see the social content of sport, its structure as a social activity and a place in the social system, which currently dominates the economy. The special role of the economy, among other fields of public life has long been studied since the time of Karl Marx. However, there is a danger of misunderstanding the true complexity of the relationship between sports and economy, if not to interpret the social context of each of these structures, and not try to catch the correlation components. The proposed solution places sports within modern discourse of economic sociology. However, the focus on economic relations leaves in the shadow relationships between sport and other social spheres.