Introduction: Political Semiotics as a Theory, Methodology, and Method of Relational Political Analysis

Abstract

It is argued that the book is about introducing the potential of relational thinking for political analysis. Instead of providing an overview of possible trajectories for articulating a relational political analysis a concrete relational theory of the political is articulated in the book, which has implications for methodology and methods for relational political analysis. In addition, several applications of this theory, methodology, and methods are sketched out in the book. The approach of the book is called “political semiotics” and it is argued that it is a fruitful way of conducting research on power, governance, and democracy in a manner that is envisioned in numerous discussions of the “relational turn” in the social sciences. This way, the book attempts to introduce a possible route of taking steps toward “relational turn” in political science, public administration, and governance studies. A general overview of the book chapters is also provided.