Relationality: An Emergent Politics of Life Beyond the Human

by Arturo Escobar, Michal Osterweil, Kriti Sharma

This important new book argues that at the root of the contemporary crisis of climate, energy, food, inequality, and meaning is a certain core presupposition that structures the ways in which we live, think, act and design : the assumption of dualism, or the fundamental separateness of things.

The authors contend that the key to constructing livable worlds lies in the cultivation of ways of knowing and acting based on a profound awareness of the fundamental interdependence of everything that exists – what they refer to as relationality . This shift in paradigm is necessary for healing our bodies, ecosystems, cities, and the planet at large.

The book follows two interwoven threads of on the one hand, it explains and exemplifies the modes of operation and the dire consequences of non-relational living; on the other, it elucidates the nature of relationality and explores how it is embodied in transformative practices in multiple spheres of life.

The authors provide an instructive account of the philosophical, scientific, social, and political sources of relational theory and action, with the aim of illuminating the transition from living within seemingly ineluctable 'toxic loops' of unrelational living (based on ontological dualism), to living within 'relational weaves' which we might co-create with multiple human and nonhuman others.

Genres: Design

232 pages, Hardcover

Published June 13, 2024

About the author

Arturo Escobar is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His most recent book is Territories of Difference.

Reviews

[Crabbyblabbyabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a book group of solidarity economy people - getting to discuss it as we were reading made the experience for me. It helped sharpen my understanding of ontological politics. I find myself with so many more questions than when I started, I presume as the authors intended.

[Pradeep Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among one of the best books that I read. It will provide everyone with power to dream this world better. The book states it well that “the belief in the existence of “the Individual” has been one of modernity’s greatest foundational narratives”. He emphasises the need to understand relatedness- “I am not related to my right hand- I am my hand, and we were never two separate things that were subsequently bound by relation”. The book argues that “the “external” world is not an outside place but an act of participation”. The entire participation debate for three decades has struggled to unpack the role of power, which is intrinsic to participation. Everyone has been trying to instrumentalise participation to dissolve power- relationship. The role of any dominant ideology in influencing Imagining is important to understand. The book states that the dominant systems “put up mirrors everywhere, all it will be able to see is its own reflections”. It further adds, “To rush into designing, making and “problem-solving” without pausing to make space for conscious choosing and intention-setting puts up at risk of simply replicating the dreams and desires of the dominant episteme”. It urges to remake ourselves- which means “rewriting altogether our entire sense of ourselves as neo-liberal individuals whose desires are not allowed to exceed what capitalism has to offer”. Our dreams, within the prism of neoliberalism, often feel stifled and unable to break free. And piercing neo-liberalism requires a revolution. And for revolution, one needs to be able to imagine and reimagine. Escobar et al say, “All plants evolved from algae un the early oceans, who adapted to land to become part the massive and diverse family of land-plants we know as angiosperms. Seagrasses then became some of the very few land plants to return to the ocean”. A must read. My review in linked in