Conceptualizing Relational Sociology

Margaret Archer, University of Warwick, UKNick Crossley, University of Manchester, UKMustafa Emirbayer, University of Wisconsin at Madison, USAKenneth Fish, University of Winnipeg, CanadaDebbie Kasper, Hiram College, USACraig McFarlane, Carleton University, USASarah Redshaw, Senior Researcher, Nursing Research and Practice Development Unit, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, UKChristopher Thorpe, Robert Gordon University, UKCharalambos Tsekeris, Athens Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece

'The companion edited volumes Conceptualizing Relational Sociology and Applying Relational Sociology offer nothing less than a platform to review and renegotiate some of the key aspects and key contributions for the social sciences. The editors' strategy for achieving this is remarkable they seek to introduce relational sociology based on what they hold as evidence of this way of thinking of society in both seminal and more contemporary thought, and do so by bringing together a strong selection of contributions from established and up-and-coming authors. One of the major strengths of this book is that relational sociology is introduced not as a broad declaration of war to any existing and established current, but rather as a 'federative' epistemological discussion that is introduced by means of a demonstration of its presence, and by illuminating us on its principles as they are developed already in some of the seminal contributions to the field. It is my opinion that this book makes a great contribution to the epistemology of sociology and to the social sciences as a whole.' - Jonathan Paquette, Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada

• Introduction; François Dépelteau and Christopher Powell PART I: DEFINING THE PROJECT 1. Collective Reflexivity: A Relational Case for it; Margaret Archer 2. Interactions and Juxtapositions: Conceptualizing 'Relations' in Relational Sociology; Nick Crossley 3. From interactions between structures and actors to social transactions; François Dépelteau 4. Relational Sociology: A Paradigm from a Critical Realist Standpoint; Pierpaolo Donati 5. Radical Relationism; Christopher Powell PART II: RELATIONISM AND SOCIAL THEORY 6. Relational Sociology and Historical Materialism: Three Conversation Starters; Ken Fish 7. Bourdieu's Relational Method in Theory and Practice; John W. Mohr 8. Feminist Preludes to Relational Sociology; Sarah Redshaw 9. Critical Strategies for Implementing a Relational Sociological Paradigm: Elias, Bourdieu, and Uncivilized Sociological Theoretical Struggles; Christopher Thorpe 10. Norbert Elias on Relations: Insights and Perspectives; Charalambos Tsekeris PART III: PERMUTATIONS AND APPLICATIONS 11. Power from Switching Across Netdoms through Reflexive and Indexical Language; Jorge Fontdevila and Harrison C. White 12. Social Relationships between Communication, Network Structure, and Culture; Jan Fuhse 13. Turning points are the rule rather than the exception: perspective on the different forms of uncertainty; Harrison C. White, Frédéric C. Godart, and Matthias Thiemann 14. Advancing Sociology Through a Focus on Relational Processes; Debbie Kasper 15. Survival units as the point of departure for a relational sociology; Lars Bo Kasperson 16. Human Transaction Mechanisms in Evolutionary Niches—a Methodological Relationalist Standpoint; Osmo Kivinen and Tero Piiroinen 17. Objects, Agency and Relational Sociology; Craig McFarlane 18. Connecting Network Methods to Social Science Research: How To Parsimoniously Use Dyadic Measures as Independent Variables; Heather Price Relational Sociology, Social Psychology, and Social Neuroscience; Stephen QuilleyConclusion; Mustafa Emirbayer