The Concept of “Social Relationship” in Pierpaolo Donati’s Sociological Theory

Abstract

To foster a right understanding of Relational Sociology, it is necessary to consider the theoretical grounds upon which it is based. The first aspect to highlighten, is the realistic assumption of the whole relational “system”, which sets relation as the originating principle of both sociality with its structures and of the creation and developing of social actors’ personalities. From this firm awareness originates a social theory which, catching the ontological dimension of the social, can foster a methodological as well as investigative reflection which is not only original, but also quite adhering to the meaning and the sense of social phenomena. Within reciprocity, caught as the specification of human relationality, originate all the most important institutions which, though setting themselves free from individual agency, will never become independent of social actors’ intentionality.