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'.

Prizes

Joint winner of Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize 2015

'The Relational Subject by Pierpaolo Donati and Margaret Archer is something new under the sun … what Donati and Archer have produced seems to me distinctly new both to standard Western sociology and the standard Western philosophy of social science. The theory articulated in The Relational Subject is certainly distinctly different from the varieties of relational sociology that precede it …' Douglas V. Porpora, Journal of Critical Realism

Pierpaolo Donati is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre of Studies on Social Innovation (CESIS) at the University of Bologna, Italy. Margaret S. Archer is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Social Ontology at the University of Warwick.