The phrase "be understood in relation to" is correct and usable in written English.
It is often used to describe the understanding of a subject when it is compared to something else. For example: In order to understand the impact of technology on society, it must be understood in relation to its cultural setting.
The thickness dependence of the thermal resistance is observed, and can be understood in relation to heat-transfer losses that are related to the porous structure of the SWCNT film.
All three concepts are relational, that is, their definition can only be understood in relation to one another [ 64].
From that point of view learning needs to be understood in relation to the individual and his or her experiences, which are related to his or her learning.
These need to be understood in relation to the proper goal of the firm.
So a phrase such as "hot dog" would be understood in relation to mustard and baseball games, not overheated canines.
But this breathtakingly vindictive betrayal can be understood in relation to Shaw's real-life obsession with his leading actress.
The sheer implausibility of Daniel's marine adventure needs to be understood in relation to the twin possibilities, explicitly invoked by the narrative, of hallucination and angelic intervention.
These findings also need to be understood in relation to what we know about the severe cognitive effects of persistent, heavy alcohol use, which include irreversible brain damage.
Academics and policymakers expanded on these ideas after September 11th, which brought urgently to the fore questions about how Al Qaeda's radical ideas should be understood in relation to wider, diverse Muslim thought.
In it, Ms. Sedgwick argued that Austen's descriptions of the restless Marianne Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility" should be understood in relation to contemporary thought on the evils of "self-abuse".
It may be that our culture of surveillance – by which I mean not only the persecutory monitoring of the totalitarian state envisioned by Orwell, but the more tacitly imposed, pseudo-benign mutual monitoring of social media culture, as well as tabloid media intrusion – can only be understood in relation to this feeling of helplessness.
