The Relational Theory Of Society

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This publication was financially supported by the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński
University in Warsaw.

This work has been reviewed by: Wojciech Świątkiewicz (University of Silesia in
Katowice) and Wiesław Gumuła (Jagiellonian University).

ISSN 2196-0151

ISBN 978-3-631-81199-3 (Print)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-83123-6 (E-PDF)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-83124-3 (EPUB)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-83125-0 (MOBI)

DOI 10.3726/b17364

© Peter Lang GmbH

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Berlin 2020

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About the editors

The Editors
Krzysztof Wielecki is an associate professor at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyn´ski University in Warsaw, head of the Institute of Sociology and the Social Thought Department, and the author of many studies in the field of social psychology, human philosophy, social ontology, and economic sociology.

Klaudia S´ledzin´ska, PhD is an independent scientist. Her research focuses on ethics, philosophy, sociology, and especially the redefinition of experiences and the social phenomena in the space of praxis.

About the book

Krzysztof Wielecki / Klaudia Śledzińska (eds.)

The Relational Theory of Society

This book focuses on the question of relationality. Despite the numerous motifs introduced to the discourse pertaining to Margaret S. Archer’s concept, we notice that some often reappear. What frequently appears is the concept of agency, closely related to the matter of the subject’s reflexivity. We also include papers that refer to methodological dilemmas. However, all collected texts directly consider the essence of the concept of the human person and society in reaction to the ontology of the person proposed by Archer. The common thread and horizon of these elaborations is Archer’s concept and Pierpaolo Donati’s relational sociology. Thus, this publication seeks to gain broader public and open new research perspectives in sociology.

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Preface

Margaret S. Archer

The Morphogenesis of Personal Identity: Who We Are Is What We Care About

Pierpaolo Donati

The Relational Constitution of Society and the Human Person: an Introduction to Relational Sociology

Fr. Artur Wysocki

The Transcendence of the Person in Forgiveness: The Perspective of Relational Sociology

Krzysztof Wielecki

Concerns, Horror and Instrumental Rationality

Arkadiusz Jabłoński

The Category of Time in Morphogenetic Interpretation of Social and Cultural Change

Klaudia Śledzińska

The Barriers Impeding the Processes toward Conscious Citizenship: A Deficit in Power Relations within Public Space

Silvia Cataldi

On a Giant’s Shoulders: Three Merits of Archer’s Contribution

Marek Rembierz

Hope—Humanity—Society: Questions Concerning Hope and the Inspirations of Critical Realism

Marcin Zarzecki

Methodological and Theoretical Implications of Margaret S. Archer’s Critical Realism for the Concept of Social Constructionism in Interpretive Sociology

Electric Current Sociology Proposal Inspired by the Thought of Margaret S. Archer: An Overview

Monika Bukowska

The Scientific Experience of Margaret S. Archer

Authors

Preface

In a world of greater social complexity, the need of implementing adequate instruments of description increases. One of the ideas in this area is the perspective of relational sociology whose object of description is not the agent, understood individually, nor the social system, nor even their conjunction, but rather the social relation. Although, from its beginning, sociology dealt with social relations, it cannot be ignored that the relationality of social life has undergone particular intensification in the past few years. However, as acknowledged by Pierpaolo Donati, the question of relations itself is not properly understood, and often it is also omitted in descriptions as an alleged, coincidental phenomenon or a category derived from other factors. The reductionist approach to social relations causes the relational condition of the human person to be subject to distortion, which intensifies the sense of confusion in the increasing dynamic and diversification of social life. This volume of Archerian Studies is an attempt at indicating the possible origins of inspiration following from relational sociology and its relationship with Margaret S. Archer’s concept of critical realism.

For the past four years, the Department of Social Thought in the Institute of Sociology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, as part of the popularization of Margaret S. Archer’s thought, organizes the annual Social Thought Master Courses, which are delivered by Margaret S. Archer herself, and sometimes by guests whom she invites like Douglas Porpora, Pierpaolo Donati or Roberto Scalon. These Master Courses are accompanied by international scientific conferences indicating the value of applying the paradigm of critical realism in various areas of social research. On November 22nd 2017 Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw conferred upon the British scholar the title of doctor honoris causa—in this volume we publish the lecture given by Margaret S. Archer on this occasion.