Una Introduction to Relational Responsibility in the Context of Socio-ecological Crisis

Abstract

What should we do in the face of today’s socio-ecological crisis? I respond to this question by proposing relational responsibility as both a well suited ethical principle for guiding action in the kinds of situations that accompany this crisis and a notion that establishes an analytical framework for enriching our understanding of the parties and forces involved in such situations. To contextualize and demonstrate the potential of this notion this article draws upon discussions from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, such as philosophy, anthropology, economics, and psychology. The body of the article is divided into three sections. The first two sections aim to situate the discussion in the contrast between the two ways of conceiving the world that face each other when the socio-ecological crisis is approached from a relational responsibility perspective. While the first section examines the ideological foundations fueling this crisis, the second reflects on relationality, an alternative way of understanding the world that has recently been gaining ground in various academic disciplines. Then, the third section addresses relational responsibility within the context of relational ethics and the different ways in which responsibility is commonly understood. The article concludes with some final remarks on the value of relational responsibility in the context of the current socio-ecological crisis, as well as the challenges involved in its adoption in the present situation.