This is the first book addressing explicitly and specifically the methodological issues of relational sociology, and more broadly of the new relational paradigm in social sciences. The dynamically developing relational movement in social and cultural sciences is fueled by various classical and contemporary theoretical inspirations. Relational approaches propose various models of relational analyses, such as field analysis, social space analysis, network analysis, or the critical realist relational heuristic. The relational turn, which promotes interdisciplinarity in research, simultaneously reflects the drive towards an innovative reconstruction of sociology. Contemporary relational sociology is at the forefront of the relational movement. The program of relational sociology is still being shaped, frequently becoming the subject of discussions with different standpoints expressed. The aim of this book is to reflect on various relational approaches and models of relational analysis.Answers to two basic questions are sought: Are there foundations for a methodological unity of relational sociology, despite the diversity of approaches? And does relational sociology form a new paradigm? To answer these questions, it is necessary to investigate differences between the relational paradigm and the earlier, competing sociological paradigms. The answers to key questions show what innovations the methodology of relational sociology brings, i.e. what are the methodological consequences of the relational concept of the social fact. The broadly defined horizon of methodological issues is presented. The book creates an open space for discussion on various approaches and varieties of relational analysis, as well as the possibility of their methodological synthesis within relational sociology.

Provides a comprehensive view of methodological approaches in the rapidly developing new relational paradigm Shows what innovations the methodology of relational sociology brings Reflects on various relational approaches and models of relational analysis

Autorentext

Elzbieta Halas is Full Professor of Humanities and Sociology at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her fields of interest include: relational perspectives in social theory, cultural sociology, symbolic interactionism, social symbolism, politics of symbolization and cultural memory. Her research is focused on the relational, semiotic and pragmatic dimensions of contemporary cultural and social transformations. In 2016, she initiated international seminars on relational sociology in Poland.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. The methodology of critical realist relational analysis: the research design and its underlying rules.- Chapter 2. The Grounds of Relational Explanation.- Chapter 3. Relational Understanding: Beyond the Interpretative and Normative Divide.- Chapter 4. Realism vs Relationism.- Chapter 5. Fields, Markets, Institutions and Networks.- Chapter 6. French Top Media Executives The Sociology of a Segment of the Elite.- Chapter 7.The Methodological Rules of the Critical Realist Relational Sociology (CRRS): Some Examples.- Chapter 8. Florian Znaniecki's Methodology for the Relational Paradigm. The Application of Analytic Induction to Nationalism Studies.- Chapter 9.Towards a relational pragmatics as a bridge between sociology and linguistics.- Chapter 10. Finger Pointing in Early Childhood. Interaction Analysis and the Communicative Construction of Social Relations.- Chapter 11.Towards a Relational Pragmatics as a Bridge Between Sociology and Linguistics.- Chapter 12. Beyondrelationism ? Relational Perspectives and George Herbert Mead.- Chapter 13. Normative Reciprocity, Relational Sociology, and the Critique of Forms of Social Life.