Sociologists and social theorists use the term social frequently. We talk of social relations social media social networks social factors and so on as well as the social. But do we always know what we mean or what we are invoking when we deploy the term social The concept of the social has often been treated as almost selfexplanatory inherited from the works of the instigators of sociology and social theory who it is assumed all meant the same thing by the term. Rethinking the Social argues tha