A (deep) relational reflection on knowledge through the flat ontology; A co-disciplinary epistemological and methodological framework and implications for spatial planning

In recent times, various "relational views" based on the "principle of complexity" have emerged as alternatives to essentialist approaches, collectively referred to as the "relational turn". However, the philosophical foundations of these views are often ambiguous, leading to potential confusion with "relativist perspectives" or "interactive views" informed by Habermas' Communicative Action. Contemporary scholarly concerns in the humanities and social sciences -such as new emphasis on materiality, embodied practices, affects and intuition, spatiotemporality, post-humanism, and even the co-disciplinary- to understand human-societal processes, stem from "relational thought" but lack proper elucidation of their ontological and epistemological underpinnings. The article employs the Synthesis Research Method to comprehensively analyze and categorize "relational perspectives" based on their ontological roots to address these issues. Moreover, it seeks to elaborate a "co-disciplinary and (deep) relational epistemological and methodological framework" by utilizing "general epistemic components" and "key components of the (deep) relational view based on flat ontology". From this viewpoint, knowledge possesses multiple, heterogeneous, mediated, and contextual nature, drawing from the intertwined resources of "conscious subjectivity" (conscious deliberation or reflexivity) and "objectivity" (external environment). Furthermore, unconscious mediators, such as "collective ideal" (culture and discourse) and "individual embodied" (psychophysical characteristics) mediators, play an essential role in shaping knowledge. Knowledge exhibits uncertain and contingent boundaries, and is in a perpetual state of "becoming". Drawing inspiration from Latour, the methodology is premised on developing "assemblage/deployment programs". Importantly, the epistemic framework can apply to a wide spectrum of fields, from humanities and social sciences to art, spatial planning, and public policy, with the potential to promote single disciplines into co-disciplinarity and co-disciplines into trans-disciplinarity.