Relational thinking in sociology

relevance, concurrence and dissonance

François Dépelteau

pp. 3-33

in: François Dépelteau (ed), The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter explains the relevance of relational sociology as a sociology of relations based on core ideas such as processual thinking, the idea of interdependency, the principle of co-production and the rejection of the idea that social phenomena should be seen as social 'substances". Key issues such as the existence of the causal powers of social structures, the importance of non-human interactants and the principle of emergency are also presented. The relational turn is connected to similar ideas one can find with relational thinking in other disciplines such as psychology, psychoanalysis, process-relational philosophy and archeology. The relational turn in sociology is promoted as a promising intellectual movement questioning fundamental principles and ideas in the discipline.