Introduction: The Promise of the Relational Turn in Sociology
Part I: General Presentation of Relational Sociology
1. Relational Thinking in Sociology: Relevance, Concurrence and Dissonance
2. The Relation as Magical Operator: Overcoming the Divide between Relational and Processual Sociology
Part II: Approaches and Theories Associated with Relational Sociology:
Pragmatism, Interactions, and Assemblages
3. Sociology of Infinitesimal Difference: Gabriel’s Tarde Heritage
4. Pluralism and Relationism in Social Theory: Lessons from the Tarde/Durkheim Debate
5. G.H. Mead and Relational Sociology: The Case of Concepts
6. Pragmatist Methodological Relationalism in Sociological Understanding of Evolving Human Culture
7. Gilles Deleuze and Relational Sociology
8. Triangular Relations: Michel Serres on Parasites, Angels, Quasi-objects, and the Virtual
9. Bruno Latour and Relational Sociology
Part III: Social Forms, System Theories, and Network Analysis
10. Georg Simmel and Relational Sociology
11. Georg Simmel’s Concepts of Forms of Sociation as an Analytical Tool for Relational Sociology
12. Switchings among Netdoms: The Relational Sociology of Harrison White
13. Relationalism and Social Networks
14. Is Niklas Luhmann a Relational Sociologist?
Part IV: Power Relations, Inequalities, and Conflicts
15. Charles Tilly and Relational Sociology
16. Michael Mann and Relational Sociology
17. Pierre Bourdieu and Relational Sociology
18. Relational Sociology and Postcolonial Theory: Sketches of a ‘Postcolonial Relationism’
19. ‘To Understand the Shore, it is not Enough… to Pick up an Empty Shell…’: Feminist Epistemologies, Ecological Thinking, and Relational Ontologies
Part V: Current Approaches in Relational Sociology
20. Beyond the Manifesto: Mustafa Emirbayer and Relational Sociology
21. Critical Realism as Relational Sociology
22. An Original Relational Sociology Grounded in Critical Realism
23. Deconstructing and Reconstructing Social Networks
24. Networks, Interactions and Relations
25. From the Concept of ‘Trans-action’ to a Process-Relational Sociology
Part VI: Specific Issues and Concepts in Relational Sociology
26. Relational Agency
27. Power and Relational Sociology
28. Relational Radicalization
29. The Relational Meaning-Making of Riots: Narrative Logic and Network Performance of the London ‘Riots’
30. Music Sociology and Relational Perspective
31. Relational Sociology: Contributions to Understanding Residential Decision-Making in Later Life
32. Relations, Organizing, Leadership and Education
33. Marcel Mauss, the Gift and Relational Sociology
François Dépelteau is Professor of Sociology at Laurentian University, Canada. He is a specialist in sociological theory and relational sociology, and has published many books and articles in journals such as Sociological Theory and The International Review of Sociology.
This handbook on relational sociology is about a rapidly growing approach in the social sciences; an approach which is connected to the interests of a large, diverse pool of researchers across a range of disciplines.The book aims to elucidate the complexity and the scope of this growing approach by dealing with three central questions: where does relational sociology come from and what are its principal concerns? What are the main theoretical and methodological currents within relational sociology? What have we studied in relational sociology and what are the results? Relational sociology has been one of the key foundations of the 'relational turn' in human sciences since the 1980s, and offers the opportunity to redefine the basic epistemological and ontological principles of sociology as we know it.