Karen Barad’s posthumanist relational ontology: an intra-active approach to theorising and studying family practices

IF 1.1 3区社会学 Q3 FAMILY STUDIES

Families Relationships and Societies Pub Date : 2021-03-01 DOI:10.1332/204674321X16111601839112

N. Mauthner

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

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.

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凯伦·巴拉德的后人类主义关系本体论:一种理论化和研究家庭实践的内部活动方法

在过去的二十年里，社会学，包括家庭和个人生活的社会学，已经看到了一个“关系转向”，越来越多的工作试图通过将社会关系作为社会学分析的主要对象来解释“社会”。关系社会学将社会关系理论化为互动或交易。交互是将独立实体聚集在一起的关系，而事务则是实体之间相互依赖的关系。本文介绍了第三种将关系概念化为行动内部的方法，借鉴了女权主义哲学家和物理学家凯伦·巴拉德提出的后人类主义关系本体论。内部行为被理解为本体论上不可分割和相互构成的社会-自然或物质-话语关系。本文通过作者研究中的实例说明，Barad的关系本体论为关系社会学和家庭实践理论研究的关系方法提供了富有成果和独特的本体论基础。

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来源期刊

Families Relationships and Societies FAMILY STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.10

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) is a vibrant social science journal advancing scholarship and debates in the field of families and relationships. It explores family life, relationships and generational issues across the life course. Bringing together a range of social science perspectives, with a strong policy and practice focus, it is also strongly informed by sociological theory and the latest methodological approaches. The title ''Families, Relationships and Societies'' encompasses the fluidity, complexity and diversity of contemporary social and personal relationships and their need to be understood in the context of different societies and cultures. International and comprehensive in scope, FRS covers a range of theoretical, methodological and substantive issues, from large scale trends, processes of social change and social inequality to the intricacies of family practices. It welcomes scholarship based on theoretical, qualitative or quantitative analysis. High quality research and scholarship is accepted across a wide range of issues. Examples include family policy, changing relationships between personal life, work and employment, shifting meanings of parenting, issues of care and intimacy, the emergence of digital friendship, shifts in transnational sexual relationships, effects of globalising and individualising forces and the expansion of alternative ways of doing family. Encouraging methodological innovation, and seeking to present work on all stages of the life course, the journal welcomes explorations of relationships and families in all their different guises and across different societies.