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'.

Traditional psychoanalysis views relationships as forged through individual drives--a satisfaction and fulfillment of needs and desires. Rucker and Lombardi contend, however, that all relationships cannot be explained so simply; rather, they argue that human relationships carry meanings which cannot be reduced solely to the psychic contributions of each of the individuals involved. Instead, Subject Relations discusses the existence of a related unconscious rooted in mutual subjective experience. The authors cite numerous clinical examples that show how the unconscious material generated by human interrelatedness comes to light. Drawing on the work of Matte-Blanco as well as traditional object relations theorists such as Melanie Klein, D.W. Winnicott, and Thomas Ogden, the authors examine how identifications that exist through unconscious processes manifest themselves in psychoanalytic theory and practice.

This book addresses the necessity, and the process of the development of human relation and the dynamic forces affecting the Relational Transactions and the Human Relation as a whole. It reviews development of the human personality and Personality Disorders. This writing evaluates the role and the impact of Personality Disorders on sick human relations.

Edited by François Depelteau and Christopher Powell, this volume and its companion, Applying Relational Sociology: Networks, Relations, addresses fundamental questions about what relational sociology is and how it works.

"The book explains how Indigenous peoples organize their economies for good living, by developing relationships among people and the natural world. Creating strong relationships is a major alternative to the proposals that urge Indigenous people to individualize their economies"--

Much of our concept of society has been defined by sociology's dual focuses: individuals, and groups. In this eagerly awaited book, Donati shifts focus to the relationships between people, and explains this new 'relational sociology' in detail.

Organizations are the dominant social invention for generating resources and distributing them. Relational Inequalities develops a general sociological and organizational analysis of inequality, exploring the processes that generate inequalities in access to respect, resources, and rewards. Framing their analysis through a relational account of social and economic life, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Dustin Avent-Holt explain how resources are generated and distributed both within and between organizations. They show that inequalities are produced through generic processes that occur in all social relationships: categorization and their resulting status hierarchies, organizational resource pooling, exploitation, social closure, and claims-making. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, Tomaskovic-Devey and Avent-Holt focus on the workplace as the primary organization for generating inequality and provide a series of global goals to advance both a comparative organizational research model and to challenge troubling inequalities.