What is ‘relational thinking’, and how does it manifest in research?
File(s)
Published version (early view)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
People and Nature is a ‘journal of relational thinking’. This editorial explores what relational thinking can mean and how it might be operationalized in the context of humans and the environment. Relational thinking may seem intuitive because it recognizes the world's inherent interconnectedness. However, the question of how to operationalize relational thinking in social-ecological research is rich and multifaceted. This is because doing research that embraces and advances relational thinking can be complex, particularly when research expands beyond social science to human–nature relationships with diverse organisms and ecological systems. This editorial offers one synthesis of existing work on relational thinking and outlines practical suggestions for how to recognize and implement deeper relationality in research. It synthesizes nine themes that can offer guidance for researchers who aim to clarify and strengthen how their research employs and advances relational thinking.
Date Issued
2026-07-29
Date Acceptance
2026-07-10
Citation
People and Nature, 2026
ISSN
2575-8314
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
People and Nature
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Author(s). People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-07-29