Relational Theory

Relational theory starts from the ontological fact of our being in networks of relationships and draws out what this means for theories of knowledge and for moral and political theory. This book uses insights from feminist relational theory to outline the ontological, epistemological, and moral/political implications of this theoretical approach.

The chapters in this volume focus on relationships of power and oppression; how these relationships shape who is taken to have knowledge and who is dismissed or ignored; and what all of this means for theories of equality, justice, and moral and political theory more generally. A focus on relationships of power and oppression opens up an examination into structures such as colonialism and capitalism that shape interconnected networks of relationships between humans and human and non-human entities and ecosystems. This volume, that now includes eight additional chapters published both before and after the original special issue, offers a significant step forward in the development of feminist relational theory. Following early forays in identifying and criticizing mainstream liberal theory in the Western tradition, chapters in this collection draw on approaches by anti-oppression theorists found in critical disability, critical race, anti-colonial/decolonial, and non-Western theories, to further broaden the descriptions and analyses of relationships and networks of relationships and to extend and advance feminist relational theory and its applications. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Global Ethics.