Abschied vom Container. Zur Einordnung eines relationalen Wirklichkeitsverständnisses

Abstract

Bruno Latour is an important reference when it comes to advancing relational accounts of human existence and to relativizing anthropocentrism. Latour himself, however, assigns little importance to developing his assumptions and analyses in dialogue with other socio-philosophical and sociological theories. In order to reduce the resulting obstacles to understanding Latour, this essay undertakes three steps. In a first step, Latour’s relational approach is placed in a context of the history of ideas. In a second step, the transition to a relational approach is interpreted spatially as a change in guiding image. The image of strictly demarcated social container spaces – which are overlooked, controlled, and steered by a central authority – is replaced by a relational spatial model. In a final step, it is proposed that ecology, as a science of interwoven webs of life and ecosystems, should be elevated to a leading science for social scientific thinking. This does not only entail focusing on the interconnectedness of nature and culture/society or overcoming their separation; within a general social theoretical perspective, such an elevation is rather about relational thinking on behalf of an ecology of relationships. The insight that human beings are interwoven in and dependent on social and systemic contexts is thus extended to all life. Accordingly, everything is interconnected, linked, mixed, and blended.