What is ‘relational thinking’, and how does it manifest in research?

Abstract People and Nature is a ‘journal of relational thinking’. This editorial explores what relational thinking can mean and how it might be operationalized in the context of humans and the environment. Relational thinking may seem intuitive because it recognizes the world's inherent interconnectedness. However, the question of how to operationalize relational thinking in social‐ecological research is rich and multifaceted. This is because doing research that embraces and advances relational thinking can be complex, particularly when research expands beyond social science to human–nature relationships with diverse organisms and ecological systems. This editorial offers one synthesis of existing work on relational thinking and outlines practical suggestions for how to recognize and implement deeper relationality in research. It synthesizes nine themes that can offer guidance for researchers who aim to clarify and strengthen how their research employs and advances relational thinking.