TY - BOOK AU - Donati, Pierpaolo AB - This book explores the ways in which social relations are profoundly changing modern society, arguing that, constituting a reality of their own, social relations will ultimately lead to a new form of society: an aftermodern or relational society. Drawing on the thought of Simmel, it extends the idea that society consists essentially of social relations, in order to make sense of the operation of dichotomous forces in society and to examine the emergence of a "third" in the morphogenetic processes. Through a realist and critical relational sociology, which allows for the fact that human beings are both internal and external to social relations, and therefore to society, the author shows how we are moving towards a new, trans-modern society – one that calls into question the guiding ideas of Western modernity, such as the notion of linear progression, that science and technology are the decisive factors of human development, and that culture can entirely supplant nature. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, social theorists, economists, political scientists, and social philosophers with interests in relational thought, critical realism, and social transformation. DO - 10.4324/9781003146698 ID - OAPEN ID: ONIX_20210323_9781000382679_2 KW - after-modernity KW - critical realism KW - modernity KW - relational thinking KW - relational thought KW - Simmel KW - social relations KW - social transformation KW - trans-modern KW - western modernity L1 - https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/26980029-4759-45a3-bbde-60fb1532117e/9781000382679.pdf LA - English LK - https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47506 PB - Taylor & Francis PY - 2021 SN - 9781000382679 SN - 9780367705138 SN - 9781003146698 SN - 9780367705121 TI - Transcending Modernity with Relational Thinkingnull ER -