Relational ontology

In a relational ontology, the idea is that relations between entities are more fundamental than the entities themselves.

– The Nested-I and Ubuntu Rationality: The Relational Ontology of the Commons

It means that living organisms develop and thrive through their interactions with each other. That is the basis for their identity and biological survival. That is the basis for their aliveness.

– The Nested-I and Ubuntu Rationality: The Relational Ontology of the Commons

While individual organisms may have important degrees of agency, they can only be understood in the context of their myriad relationships and constraints by larger structures.

– Free, Fair and Alive

Sounds a bit like Viable system model? And Institutional Analysis and Development (re: polycentrism)?

As a social system based on how people come together to collaborate and sustain themselves, a Commons is based on a relational ontology.

– Free, Fair and Alive

to see that everything is interdependent, and that our individual wellbeing depends upon collective well-being. Our polity must be “attuned to the relational dimension of life,” as Arturo Escobar puts it.

– Free, Fair and Alive