Showing papers on "Relational sociology published in 2021"

A Dependent Structure of Interdependence: Structure and Agency in Relational Perspective:

Abstract: In this article I argue for a relational approach to the agency–structure problem. Structure has three dimensions from this perspective but, at its most fundamental, it is a network comprising soci...

Proper recognition: Personhood and symbolic capital in contemporary sociology:

Abstract: Sociologists maintain an ambivalent relationship to the category of the person, even more so at a time when the category is deemed insufficient for analysis yet appears increasingly significant wit

Higher Education Organizations as Strategic Actors in Networks: Institutional and Relational Perspectives Meet Social Network Analysis

Abstract: Informed by multiple disciplines, theories, and methods, higher education scholars have developed a robust and diverse literature in many countries. Yet, some important (organizational) sociological perspectives, both more established and more recent, are insufficiently linked. In particular, we identify two theoretical strands – institutional and relational – that, when joined, help to explain contemporary developments in global higher education and yield new organizational insights. We review relevant literature from each perspective, both in their general formulations and with specific reference to contemporary higher education research. Within the broad institutional strand, we highlight strategic action fields, organizational actorhood, and associational memberships. Within the relational strand, we focus on ties and relationships that are especially crucial as science has entered an age of (inter)national research collaboration. Across these theories, we discuss linkages between concepts, objects, and levels of analysis. We explore the methodological approach of social network analysis as it offers great potential to connect these strands and, thus, to advance contemporary higher education research in a collaborative era.

A Relational Sociological Analysis on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Syrian Migrants' Lives in Turkey: The Case of Mersin Province.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic which expeditiously turned into a global health crisis also triggered many risks and uncertainties especially for vulnerable groups such as migrants and refugees as a result of the measures restricting social, economic, and educational life as well as mobility. According to the relational sociological perspective, each uncertainty process creates various changes on social networks and relationships, and these relational changes also affect identities, roles, and relational strategies. With this study, it is aimed to explore the economic, social, and familial impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on Syrian migrants' lives in Turkey from a relational sociological perspective. The data in the study is obtained by semi-structured qualitative interviews with 13 Syrian citizens living in Mersin province of Turkey. According to the findings of the study, the suspension or slowdown of economic activities due to the pandemic has caused not only an uncertainty about the future, but also a change in familial positions and roles. Also the accepted norms of social relations have been inevitably suspended resulting in increased ambiguity. Strengthening the network of solidarity within relatives and building stronger relationships within the family are common relational strategies of the participants to mitigate the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, but these strategies will not be adequate if the lockdown process is prolonged. Considering the fact that the lockdown measures can be tightened again at any time, social and economic policies should be expanded to include the Syrian migrants in Turkey.

Relational analysis and the ethnographic approach : constructing preschool childhood

Abstract: This article elaborates the relational ontology in an ethnographic study. The aim is to seek relational construction of preschool practice and how children’s positions are constructed in it. The st...

Relational Segregation: A Structural View of Categorical Relations:

Abstract: This article builds a framework for a relational approach to segregation that emphasizes structures of interactions, transactions, and ties between and within social categories. Rather than explain...

Towards Relational Spatiality: Space, Relation and Simmel’s Modernity:

Abstract: By reconsidering Simmel’s concept of space, this article introduces space into the epistemological field of relational sociology to construct a relational spatiality based on relational sociology, ...

From Simmel to Relational Sociology

Abstract: Georg Simmel (1858–1918), who is widely regarded as one of the classics and intellectual grandfathers of sociology, has written on a variety of topics from several disciplinary perspectives. Yet despite the breadth and richness of his work, current sociology typically focuses only on individual dimensions. On the one hand, Simmel’s work is seen as foundational to a formal sociology, which is at the core of social network analysis. On the other hand, Simmel’s works on cultural issues yield astute analyses of modernity, which is why they are classics in the sociology of culture. However, such one-dimensional interpretations of Simmel’s work appear limited and, in turn, do not sufficiently capture his influence on the field of sociology. This chapter claims that the separated readings of the “two Simmels” need to be brought together to make full analytical use of Simmel’s most important heuristic distinction: form and content. Moreover, we will show that relational sociology of the past four decades has moved in that direction by taking the interrelation of structure and meaning seriously.

Christian Humanism: Fatherhood, Economics, and Relational Ontology

Abstract: In continuity with the first two chapters of the second part, Giulio Maspero’s thesis is that the cultural dimensions to which one must turn in order to find the reasons for the meta-crisis of both liberalism and socialism, highlighted by Donati, are metaphysics and anthropology, specifically the relationship between modernity and fatherhood. The chapter is divided into two parts: The first offers a philosophical–theological narrative that links three main metaphysical systems to different understandings of the role of the father in the societies characterized by those ontological frames. A sketch of the differences implied for the socioeconomic perspectives by these relationships in the cases of Ancient Greek, Jewish, and Christian cultures as follows. In the second part, three phenomenological analyses in very different research fields are presented: Rene Girard’s work on myths and sacrifice, Michael Tomasello’s cognitive approach to the relational specificity of the human being, and Pierpaolo Donati’s relational sociology. These different approaches seem to converge toward an acknowledgment of the value of relation. This may explain the real difference between two kinds of markets: one characterized by pure competition and imitation, as in consumerism, another marked by the possibility of a true ontological novelty thanks to the relational element. Christian humanism has produced great progress through the latter approach, made possible by Trinitarian revelation. But this means that there is no freedom without relations and no fraternity without a father, who takes care of these relations. So the future of liberalism depends on the concrete ability to develop a culture that makes fathers grow. In this sense, it seems urgent to become aware of the importance of Christian Humanism, with the Trinitarian ontology and anthropology that characterize it, as secularization is corroding the foundations of this possibility, thus exposing us to the real danger of an economic apocalypse.

Prospects for a Relational Sociology of Islam: Some Remarks on Differentiation Theory, Multiple Modernities, and the Pitfalls of Occidentalism

Abstract: Against the background of differentiation-theoretical assumptions, the article outlines some basic prospects for a relational sociology of Islam. To this end, a frame of reference is proposed that already dispenses with essentializing assumptions at the level of basic theoretical concepts, thus enabling a non-occidentalist approach to Islam and Islamic societies. In order to situate this perspective, in a first step different sociological accounts are discussed, ranging from the sociology of religion in general and the sociology of Islam in particular to differentiation theory and civilizational analysis. In a second step, the direction in which a less essentialist but still differentiation-theoretically informed perspective on Islamic societies could be further developed is discussed. The article concludes with a plea for a relational sociology that is able to investigate diverse patterns of differentiation beyond the West and to do justice to the manifold inter- and intra-societal intertwinements of social spheres and their interactions without reducing non-Western forms of social order to a derivative or even deficit status.