Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Natasha Mauthner
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Policy Press, 2021.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Over the past two decades sociology, including the sociology of family and personal life, has seen a ‘relational turn’ with a growing body of work seeking to explain the ‘social’ by taking social relations as the primary object of sociological analyses. Relational sociologies theorise relations in social terms as either inter-actions or trans-actions. Inter-actions are relations that bring separate entities together, while trans-actions posit a relation of interdependence between entities. This article introduces a third way of conceptualising relationality as intra-actions drawing on the posthumanist relational ontology proposed by feminist philosopher and physicist Karen Barad. Intra-actions are understood as social-natural or material- discursive relations of ontological inseparability and mutual constitution. Using illustrative examples from the author’s research, the article suggests that Barad’s relational ontology offers a fruitful and distinctive ontological underpinning for relational sociology and for relational approaches to theorising and studying family practices.
Author(s): Mauthner N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Families, Relationships and Societies
Year: 2021
Volume: 10
Issue: 1
Pages: 33-49
Online publication date: 11/02/2021
Acceptance date: 17/12/2020
Date deposited: 16/01/2021
ISSN (print): 2046-7435
ISSN (electronic): 2046-7443
Publisher: Policy Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674321X16111601839112
DOI: 10.1332/204674321X16111601839112
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric