The article tries to reflect on the relation as the element of social reality - relation as exchange or relation as gift? Is relation beyond these two ‘forms’? Or, instead, is relation a form like exchange and gift? In order to effort to answer these questions, the author will consider three theories little known in the Italian debate, that of Aldo Haesler, that of Philippe Chanial and that of two social psychologists, Alan Fiske and Nick Haslam. Finally, these three approaches will be compared with Pierpaolo Donati’s relational sociology to overcome some ambiguities that will emerge from the reading of the three approaches mentioned.
Keywords: Relation; Gift; Relational Ontology; Social Reality; Exchange.