ABSTRACT

This article elaborates the relational ontology in an ethnographic study. The aim is to seek relational construction of preschool practice and how children’s positions are constructed in it. The study is based on the understanding that ethnography and relational sociology share the idea that society emerges through repeated relations. The ontological thinking of relational sociology is applied in a micro-level analysis of three episodes from a Finnish preschool. We propose that relations appear in every single ethnographical episode and that carefully analysed repetitive relations can reveal a stabilised organisational structure. The analysis shows how the position of one child is structuring and being structured in everyday actions in a preschool. We argue that through relational analysis of ethnographic data, it is possible to seek sociological knowledge of institutions – in this case, of preschool.

摘要

本文阐述了民族志研究中的关系本体论。目的是寻求学前实践的关系构建以及儿童在其中的位置构建。该研究基于这样一种理解，即民族志和关系社会学都认为社会是通过重复关系出现的。将关系社会学的本体论思想应用于芬兰幼儿园的三个情节的微观分析。我们建议关系出现在每一个民族志情节中，仔细分析重复的关系可以揭示稳定的组织结构。分析显示了一个孩子的位置是如何在幼儿园的日常活动中构建和被构建的。我们认为，通过对人种学数据的关系分析，