Relational Theories of Encounters and the Relational Subject

Abstract

This paper reflects upon the complex relational enmeshments the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to. It does this through a critical engagement with contemporary social thought on what it means to be in relation, particularly that of radical relationism. Such an engagement is made possible by Sara Ahmed’s Strange Encounters, which unlike radical relationism, enables us to engage with power relations, the knowledge/power nexus and the role politics and ethics play in the conceptualisation of the relational subject. We begin with a brief overview of relational social theory highlighting some internal differences and Ahmed’s connection to these. The concluding sections interrogate how temporality and the theory/praxis nexus manifest themselves in these accounts of relationality.

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