ABSTRACT
Like most concepts in sociology, the concept of a social relationship, though central to virtually any sociological analysis, is undeveloped. The concept is used today in much the same way as it was defined by Max Weber, as one of the key terms in his systematic sociology: “The term social relationship will be used to denote the behavior of a plurality of actors insofar as, in its meaningful content, the action of each takes account of that of the others and is oriented in these terms.” This chapter uses two recent articles which are relevant to the concept of social relationship to expand and elaborate on Weber's fundamental notion. The first article, on shared awareness, explores in concrete instances some of the implications of the possibility that orientations toward the other may be incomplete, inaccurate, or equivocal. The second article, on consensus, develops a formal conceptual and operational model of the degree of shared orientation.
