In social theory, abstraction is used as both an ideational and material process. Alfred Sohn-Rethel, asked "Can there be abstraction other than by thought?" He used the example of commodity abstraction to show that abstraction occurs in practice as people create systems of abstract exchange that extend beyond the immediate physicality of the object and yet have real and immediate consequences. This work was extended through the 'Constitutive Abstraction' approach of writers associated with the Journal "Arena". Two books that have taken this theme of the abstraction of social relations as an organizing process in human history are "Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community" (1996) and the second volume published in 2006, "Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back In". These books argue that the nation is an abstract community bringing together strangers who will never meet as such; thus constituting materially real and substantial, but abstracted and mediated relations. The books suggest that contemporary processes of globalization and mediatization have contributed to materially abstracting relations between people, with major consequences for how we live our lives.