Relation sociology stresses relations (interactions, networks, transactions, and communication) as central to social life, and exploring those relations as crucial for understanding society. Relational sociology originates from the works of sociologist Charles Tilly, Harrison White, Pierpaolo Donati , and Vivian Zelizar. 

                                        Charles Tilly

American sociologist Charles Tilly focuses his research on great social changes that took place in Europe after the middle ages, primarily: revolutions, the emergence of nation-states, social movements, inequality relations, and the development of democracy. Through the comparative method, Tilly observes the dynamics of these processes through the most important social mechanisms, which can be of the structural, contextual, or relational type. To study the dynamics of social processes, he created a synthetic theoretical framework combining the Marxist theory of class interests, the utilitarian opportunism of John Stuart Mill, and Max Weber's theory of organizational resources. Tilly called his combined approach „relational realism“, while other authors classify his approach to collective action as a resource mobilization theory.

Tilly studies the creation and transformation of networks of collective actors in different historical contexts and investigates the mediating influence of demographic and technological variables on the activation of political conflicts. He was interested in the interaction between the state and social movements and is especially interested in the influence of the process of creating nations and states in determining the characteristics of movements - their origin, types of their actions, and the creation of collective political identity. He also studied broader issues, such as the processes of state-building and democratization.

In one of his first books, based on his doctoral dissertation, Vendée (1964), Tilly studies the reasons why the beginning of the counter-revolution (after the French Revolution of 1789) was located in the French region of Vendée. He compared the specific sociological characteristics of rural society in Vendée with those in the Anjou region. He found that complex and changing relations between feudal lords and peasants had developed in the Vendée region. In addition, urbanization influenced the aristocracy and clergy of this region to develop specific interests, which influenced the different reactions of these two classes to the Revolution, compared to the same classes in other regions.

In the book From Mobilization to Revolution (1978), Tilly studies the process of formation and transformation of collective action and creates a theoretical and methodological model for studying social movements and social change. He believes it is necessary to study the specific context of each collective action to understand it. The most important aspects of the context are the existence of common interests of different actors so that they can be mobilized into a common front. The movements changed their demands over time, while they previously fought against certain measures or policies, later became proactive and began to emphasize completely new demands.

The main factors influencing the operation of social movements are interests, organization, and opportunities. Interests affect the organization of the movement, and both of these factors then affect the mobilization of resources for collective action. He introduced the notion of the "action repertoire of the movement", which refers to the strategic re-examination of the relationship between gains and losses that occurs in conflict with the authorities. Tilly believes that collective action is rational and goal-oriented, rather than random and chaotic, so collective actors always question whether their activity will lead to greater benefit or harm to their interests. This collective rationality is not based on individual rationality or individual aspirations but arises from the social relations that rebellious individuals enter into.

In the book As Sociology Meets History (1981), Tilly concludes that collective action is always connected with the established ways in which people, in a particular society and age, express protest, which further affects the form and content of collective action. In the book The Contentious French (1986), he divides the types of collective protests in France by historical age. In the period from 1650 to 1850, the protests were local. The development of capitalism, urbanization, the proletarianization of labor, the increase of police and army, the development of official statistics, and the emergence of political parties and interest groups are the factors that led to collective protests becoming increasingly national and autonomous after 1850. The development of modern political and economic institutions and actors has led to an increase in the possibilities for the national organization of protests, but they have also led to the emergence of completely new collective interests.

Tilly studies revolutions in the book European Revolutions: 1492–1992 (1993) and concludes that his theory of the relationship of interests, organization, and possibilities for the emergence and development of collective action applies to European revolutions, as well as explaining their course and their success and consequences. In Roads from Past to Future (1997), he emphasizes the importance of successful revolutions for the creation of modern states and modern capitalism. The author shifts the focus of his study from institutional and other factors that influence the emergence and development of collective action, to the importance of successful collective action for the emergence of completely new institutional frameworks.

Tilly deals with the reasons for the long-term survival of many inequalities (class, gender, and racial) in the book Durable Inequality (1998). Inequalities that exist between different social groups can be caused by exploitation (Marx) or the accumulation of opportunities (Max Weber). Inequalities persist because organizations, both those in power and those fighting against the government, use these inequalities to be more efficient in their work. New organizations incorporate existing inequalities into their own organizational structure and relationships because they treat these inequalities as given, that is, as external rules of the society in which the organization must operate. The end product of these processes is that both types of organizations reproduce inequalities that already exist in the wider society.

In Contention and Democracy in Europe: 1650-2000 (2004), Tilly studies the processes of democratization and the disintegration of democracy in Europe. Democratization was often the result of struggles, where collective actors, who fought those in power, did not have a direct desire to achieve democratic progress, but democratization was an unintended product of collective action. The non-linear course of the democratization process is influenced by many factors: the dynamics of relations at the local level, slow changes in the political sphere, and the complicated intertwining of social and political relations. The effects of internal disintegration, external conquests, economic crises, and similar processes led to a decline in trust in the government, which opened space for the expression of collective dissatisfaction.

                                         Harrison White

American sociologist Harrison White focuses on studying the real interconnectedness of actors who are at a level above the simple group but below the level of the whole society. In the book An Anatomy of Kinship (1963), White uses algebraic modeling of social relations, where the social structure consists of "structures of cumulated roles" of individuals. He formulates eight axioms that connect the structure of the Australian Aboriginal clan with their rules of marriage. Later, he extended this model to apply to the institutions of the modern West, and thus came to the ideal-type model of all possible societies that correspond to these axioms. Finally, he compares his model with available anthropological data.

In the book Chains of Opportunity (1970), he creates an "algebra" of semi-groups, to make his earlier scheme applicable to organizations and informal groups in a modern, Western context. He defines role structures as the positions of social actors through multiple networks of social relations (such as friendship, hostility, and providing assistance). White uses the concept of duality to denote the invariant in models of social structures and processes that relate to cases where individuals change their positions within the workplace or change jobs. Free positions, not individual persons, are what, indeed, have the freedom to move between categories toward fixed transitional probability. Therefore, conventional mobility models should be applied to the analysis of vacancies, not directly to the mobility of individuals. 

                                     Pierpaolo Donati

Italian sociologist Pierpaolo Donati's relational sociology is grounded in the critical realism approach. Donati seeks to understand how social relations influence the morphogenesis of society. He sees social relations as mediators between agency and social structure. The dynamics of the networks of social relations represent generative mechanisms that create social change. For him, social relation is the smallest unit of society, hence it is also the smallest unit of sociological analysis.

                                     Viviana Zelizer

American sociologist Viviana Zelizer combines the approaches of three sociological sub-disciplines: family sociology, economic sociology, and historical sociology. In her studies, she examines how, throughout history, the economy and the family have been connected and how that relationship changed over time. Zelizer opposes the view that he sees the family and the economy as two "separate spheres", where the family is seen as an area characterized by emotions and generosity, and the economy as an area shaped by instrumental rationality and the pursuit of profit. She believes that these two spheres are very connected and that the inherent logic that directs the behavior of individuals within both spheres is not so different. Zelizer believes that ordinary people, legislators, judges, and companies are doing "relational work" in order to differentiate between the spheres of economy and family. Precisely because of the relational work that the actors do, she calls this approach “relational economic sociology”.

Zelizer critically examines Simmel's approach to money in his book The Social Meaning of Money (1994). While Simmel views money as a neutral medium of exchange, Zelizer shows that money is always marked by the actors in relation to: its origin (reward, gift, salary, etc.), the function it performs (which specific type of needs it satisfies), and who money earned or who has the right to spend it. In the same book, she shows how between 1870 and 1930, there was a great change in the legal and real possibilities for women to freely use money in the household. In The Purchase of Intimacy (2005), Zelizer introduces the theoretical concept of "circuits of commerce" which refers to how the relationship between private life and the economy is regulated in different social circumstances, and each social situation has its own specific circuit of commerce. Each circuit of commerce consists of four elements: the relationship between people, the means of exchange, the type of transaction, and the boundaries within which it operates. Actors are constantly doing relational work to determine and define all four aspects, for each of the circuits of commerce.

Other notable relational sociologists are: David Gibson, Mustafa Emirbayer,  Ann Mische, Ronald Burt, Mimi Sheller, and Jeff Goodwin.  

Books:

Donati, Pierpaolo. Relational Sociology. A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences (2011);

Tilly, Charles. Vendée (1964);

     -     From Mobilization to Revolution (1978);

     -     As Sociology Meets History (1981),

     -     The Contentious French (1986);

     -     Durable Inequality (1998); 

     -     Contention and Democracy in Europe: 1650-2000 (2004);

White, Harrison. Chains of Opportunity (1970);

     -     Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (1992);

     -     Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of  Production (2002);

Zelizer, Viviana. The Social Meaning of Money (1994); 

     -     The Purchase of Intimacy (2005).