Relational Sociology and Historical Materialism: Three Conversation Starters

Abstract

Relational sociology (RS) (Emirbayer 1997, Dépelteau 2008, Crossley 2011, Donati 2011) raises the question of the ontological foundation of sociology and seeks to shift our attention away from “structures” and “individuals” toward social relations as the primary object of our analyses. As this still nascent approach to understanding the social world strives to position itself as a “paradigm,” RS is challenging us to revisit questions that have been neglected since the “epistemological turn” ushered in by various forms of “postmodern” theorizing. In its recognition that “social theory … should reflect the reality of the social universe” (Dépelteau 2008, 56), RS is part of the important “ontological turn” that is occurring in the social sciences more generally, and offers a set of conceptual tools to help navigate a path between the positivism characteristic of the social science of the past and contemporary forms of constructivism that deny that such a science can exist at all.KeywordsSocial RelationLabor ProcessNonhuman AnimalHistorical MaterialismOntological FoundationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.