Die Beziehungsqualität der materiellen Welt

Things influence relationships: They break, they are easy to throw away, some are considered to be alive and we keep our distance from others. Their materiality shapes how we relate to them, what we can do with them and what they do to us. Their nature determines how we can experience things, ourselves and the world. The things that surround us condition the relationships we can build with the world. Things have material relational qualities that can be discovered and experienced. By analyzing this phenomenon, we show how materiality enables or inhibits the possibility of resonance and alienation and develop proposals for a resonance-sensitive culture of things.

Martin Repohl has been awarded the Max Weber Prize for Young Researchers 2024 and the Young Researchers Prize 2025 from the Theory Section of the German Sociological Association for his dissertation “The Quality of Relationships in the Material World.”