Relation, relational rationality and reflexivity: Three fundamental concepts of relational sociology

Abstract

“In the beginning is the relation”. This is the theoretical basis from which the Italian sociologist Pierpaolo Donati starts to elaborate the relational theory, which places him in contemporary sociology as the answer to the traditional debate between micro-macro theories and the dehumanization of discipline that has claimed to be increasingly scientific. Through his relational anthropology, epistemology and pragmatic, he makes up a theoretical corpus in which three concepts stands out: relation, relational rationality and reflexivity. An in-depth theoretical review of Donati’s work raises the need to analyse and understand these concepts to capture the potential of this sociological proposal.