Relational Persons and Relational Processes: Developing the Notion of Relationality for the Sociology of Personal Life

Abstract

The concept of relationality has recently found widespread favour in British sociology, particularly in the emergent sub-field of the sociology of personal life, which is characterised by its attachment to the concept. However, this 'relational turn' is undertheorized and pays little attention to the substantial history of relational thinking across the human sciences. This paper argues that the notion of relationality in the sociology of personal life might be strengthened by an exploration of the conceptualization of the relational person and relational processes offered by three bodies of literature: the process oriented thinking of American pragmatism, specifically of Mead and Emirbayer; the figurational sociology of Elias; and psychoanalysis, particularly the object relations tradition, contemporary relational psychoanalysis and Ettinger's notion of transubjectivity. The paper attends particularly to the processes involved in the individuality, agentic reflexivity and affective dimensions of the relational person.

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“…Roseneil and Ketokivi (2015) develop these ideas, suggesting that we should understand the 'emergence of individuality as a relational process ' (2015: 4). In other words, individualism and relationality are not oppositional ideas as they work symbiotically to produce fully reflexive individuals.…”

Living with HIV in regional Queensland: social ties, care and support in managing a long-term complex chronic illness

“…Consequently, in the last two decades there has been an increasing interest in the study of care relationships that exist within expanding forms of intimacies, beyond a traditional concept of family [205,237,238]. This interest has given rise to a sub-set of sociology, called sociology of personal life.…”

“…This interest has given rise to a sub-set of sociology, called sociology of personal life. Roseneil and Ketokivi (2015) provide a comprehensive summary of development of the sociology of personal life [238]. They argue that it originated with the study of families by the British sociologists Janet Finch (1989) and Jennifer Mason (1993) who noted that the family was dynamic and the roles and relationships within family were constantly negotiated [238].…”

“…Roseneil and Ketokivi (2015) provide a comprehensive summary of development of the sociology of personal life [238]. They argue that it originated with the study of families by the British sociologists Janet Finch (1989) and Jennifer Mason (1993) who noted that the family was dynamic and the roles and relationships within family were constantly negotiated [238]. They propose that the concept was further developed by David Morgan (1996) who noted that family was a set of important connections rather than a static entity [238].…”

“…[237]. In many cases these have been replaced with various other forms of intimacy, living arrangements and relationships [237,238,241]. Specifically, Roseneil (2004) argues that friendship is an increasingly common form of caring relationship.…”