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Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 2011"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that research on institutional work can contribute to bringing the individual back into institutional theory, help to re-examine the relationship between agency and institutions, and provide a bridge between critical and institutional views of organization.
Abstract: In this paper, we discuss an alternative focus for institutional studies of organization - the study of institutional work. Research on institutional work examines the practices of individual and collective actors aimed at creating, maintaining, and disrupting institutions. Our focus in this paper is on the distinctiveness of institutional work as a field of study and the potential it provides for the examination of new questions. We argue that research on institutional work can contribute to bringing the individual back into institutional theory, help to re-examine the relationship between agency and institutions, and provide a bridge between critical and institutional views of organization.

862 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize knowledge on agency, capacity, and resilience across human development, well-being, and disasters literature to provide insights to support more integrated and human-centered approaches to understand environmental change.
Abstract: Human agency is considered a key factor in determining how individuals and society respond to environmental change. This article synthesizes knowledge on agency, capacity, and resilience across human development, well-being, and disasters literature to provide insights to support more integrated and human-centered approaches to understanding environmental change. It draws out the key areas of agreement across these diverse fields and identifies the main points of contestation and uncertainty. This highlights the need to consider subjective and relational factors in addition to objective measures of capacity and to view these as reflexive and dynamic, as well as differentiated socially and temporally. These findings can help distinguish between coping, adaptation, and transformation as responses to environmental and other stressors.

540 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Observations from an ongoing collaborative project on resilience in Inuit, Métis, Mi'kmaq, and Mohawk communities are reported that suggest the value of incorporating indigenous constructs in resilience research.
Abstract: The notions of resilience that have emerged in developmental psychology and psychiatry in recent years require systematic rethinking to address the distinctive cultures, geographic and social settings, and histories of adversity of indigenous peoples. In Canada, the overriding social realities of indigenous peoples include their historical rootedness to a specific place (with traditional lands, communities, and transactions with the environment) and the profound displacements caused by colonization and subsequent loss of autonomy, political oppression, and bureaucratic control. We report observations from an ongoing collaborative project on resilience in Inuit, Metis, Mi'kmaq, and Mohawk communities that suggests the value of incorporating indigenous constructs in resilience research. These constructs are expressed through specific stories and metaphors grounded in local culture and language; however, they can be framed more generally in terms of processes that include: regulating emotion and supporting adaptation through relational, ecocentric, and cosmocentric concepts of self and personhood; revisioning collective history in ways that valorize collective identity; revitalizing language and culture as resources for narrative self-fashioning, social positioning, and healing; and renewing individual and collective agency through political activism, empowerment, and reconciliation. Each of these sources of resilience can be understood in dynamic terms as emerging from interactions between individuals, their communities, and the larger regional, national, and global systems that locate and sustain indigenous agency and identity. This social-ecological view of resilience has important implications for mental health promotion, policy, and clinical practice.

517 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of misfit and the situation of misfitting was proposed to further understand the lived identity and experience of disability as it is situated in place and time.
Abstract: This article offers the critical concept misfit in an effort to further think through the lived identity and experience of disability as it is situated in place and time. The idea of a misfit and the situation of misfitting that I offer here elaborate a materialist feminist understanding of disability by extending a consideration of how the particularities of embodiment interact with the environment in its broadest sense, to include both its spatial and temporal aspects. The interrelated dynamics of fitting and misfitting constitute a particular aspect of world-making involved in material-discursive becoming. The essay makes three arguments: the concept of misfit emphasizes the particularity of varying lived embodiments and avoids a theoretical generic disabled body; the concept of misfit clarifies the current feminist critical conversation about universal vulnerability and dependence; the concept of misfitting as a shifting spatial and perpetually temporal relationship confers agency and value on disabled subjects.

399 citations


Book
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the ideas that most Americans lived by started to fragment mid-century concepts of national consensus, managed markets, gender and racial identities, citizen obligation, and historical memory became more fluid Flexible markets pushed aside Keynesian macroeconomic structures; community responsibility shrank to smaller circles as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the ideas that most Americans lived by started to fragment Mid-century concepts of national consensus, managed markets, gender and racial identities, citizen obligation, and historical memory became more fluid Flexible markets pushed aside Keynesian macroeconomic structures Racial and gender solidarity divided into multiple identities; community responsibility shrank to smaller circles In this wide-ranging narrative, Daniel Rodgers shows how the collective purposes and meanings that had framed social debate became unhinged and uncertain "Age of Fracture" offers a powerful reinterpretation of the ways in which the decades surrounding the 1980s changed America Through a contagion of visions and metaphors, on both the intellectual right and the intellectual left, earlier notions of history and society that stressed solidity, collective institutions, and social circumstances gave way to a more individualized human nature that emphasized choice, agency, performance, and desire On a broad canvas that includes Michel Foucault, Ronald Reagan, Judith Butler, Charles Murray, Jeffrey Sachs, and many more, Rodgers explains how structures of power came to seem less important than market choice and fluid selves Cutting across the social and political arenas of late-twentieth-century life and thought, from economic theory and the culture wars to disputes over poverty, color-blindness, and sisterhood, Rodgers reveals how our categories of social reality have been fractured and destabilized As we survey the intellectual wreckage of this war of ideas, we better understand the emergence of our present age of uncertainty

388 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the critical question of whether networks help facilitate innovations to bridge the seemingly insurmountable chasms of complex problems to create change across scales, thereby increasing resilience.
Abstract: Complex challenges demand complex solutions. By their very nature, these problems are difficult to define and are often the result of rigid social structures that effectively act as “traps”. However, resilience theory and the adaptive cycle can serve as a useful framework for understanding how humans may move beyond these traps and towards the social innovation that is required to address many complex problems. This paper explores the critical question of whether networks help facilitate innovations to bridge the seemingly insurmountable chasms of complex problems to create change across scales, thereby increasing resilience. The argument is made that research has not yet adequately articulated the strategic agency that must be present within the network in order for cross scale interactions to occur. By examining institutional entrepreneurship through case studies and examples, this paper proposes that agency within networks requires specific skills from entrepreneurs, including ones that enable pattern generation, relationship building and brokering, knowledge and resource brokering, and network recharging. Ultimately, this begins to build a more complete understanding of how networks may improve human capacity to respond to complex problems and heighten overall resilience.

384 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the self-centered participation promoted by social media can represent a threat for political groups rather than an opportunity, arguing that far from being empowering, the logic of selfcentered participation promotes a threat to political groups.
Abstract: The rapid growth in usage of social networking sites begs a reconsideration of the meaning of mediated political participation in society. Castells (2009) contended that social networking sites offer a form of mass communication of the self wherein individuals can acquire a new creative autonomy. Stiegler (2009) and the Ars Industrialis collective believe that the processes of individuation, and of speaking out, hold the key to empowerment, agency, and resistance. In this article the authors offer a critical reflection on the logic of mediated participation promoted by social media through a consideration of the differences between individual and collective forms of mediated political participation. Drawing on ethnographic research on alternative media within the Trade Union Movement in Britain and recent research on the political culture of social networking sites, the authors argue that far from being empowering, the logic of self-centered participation promoted by social media can represent a threat for political groups rather than an opportunity.

235 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A new operational definition of social interaction is proposed which not only emphasizes the cognitive agency of the individuals and the irreducibility of the interaction process itself, but also the need for jointly co-regulated action.
Abstract: There is a small but growing community of researchers spanning a spectrum of disciplines which are united in rejecting the still dominant computationalist paradigm in favor of the enactive approach. The framework of this approach is centered on a core set of ideas, such as autonomy, sense-making, emergence, embodiment, and experience. These concepts are finding novel applications in a diverse range of areas. One hot topic has been the establishment of an enactive approach to social interaction. The main purpose of this paper is to serve as an advanced entry point into these recent developments. It accomplishes this task in a twofold manner: (i) it provides a succinct synthesis of the most important core ideas and arguments in the theoretical framework of the enactive approach, and (ii) it uses this synthesis to refine the current enactive approach to social interaction. A new operational definition of social interaction is proposed which not only emphasizes the cognitive agency of the individuals and the irreducibility of the interaction process itself, but also the need for jointly co-regulated action. It is suggested that this revised conception of ‘socio-cognitive interaction’ may provide the necessary middle ground from which to understand the confluence of biological and cultural values in personal action.

235 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the notion of bricolage, where bits and pieces of the existing ideational and institutional legacy are put together in new forms leading to significant political transformation.
Abstract: The status of ideational explanations in political science has been strengthened by the argument that institutionalized ideas structure actors’ identification of their interests as well as the interests of their political adversaries. Despite its utility, the focus on the institutionalization of ideas has had the unfortunate consequence that actors are often, implicitly or explicitly, believed to internalize ideas, making it difficult to understand how actors are able to change their ideas and institutions. Drawing on cultural sociology and ideational theory, the paper introduces the ‘bricoleur’ as an alternative vision of agency. It is argued, first, that actors cannot cognitively internalize highly structured symbolic systems, and ideas are thus ‘outside the minds of actors’. Second, using the cognitive schemas at their disposal, actors construct strategies of action based on pre-constructed ideational and political institutions. Third, actors must work actively and creatively with the ideas and institutions they use, because the structure within which actors work does not determine their response to new circumstances. Fourth, as a vast number of ideational studies have shown, actors face a complex array of challenges in getting their ideas to the top of the policy agenda, which makes it all the more important to act pragmatically, putting ideas together that may not be logically compatible but rather answer political and cultural logics. In sum, agency often takes the form of bricolage, where bits and pieces of the existing ideational and institutional legacy are put together in new forms leading to significant political transformation.

211 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that focusing on someone's body reduces perceptions of agency but increases perceptions of experience, which suggest that a body focus does not cause objectification per se but, instead, leads to a redistribution of perceived mind.
Abstract: According to models of objectification, viewing someone as a body induces de-mentalization, stripping away their psychological traits. Here evidence is presented for an alternative account, where a body focus does not diminish the attribution of all mental capacities but, instead, leads perceivers to infer a different kind of mind. Drawing on the distinction in mind perception between agency and experience, it is found that focusing on someone's body reduces perceptions of agency (self-control and action) but increases perceptions of experience (emotion and sensation). These effects were found when comparing targets represented by both revealing versus nonrevealing pictures (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or by simply directing attention toward physical characteristics (Experiment 2). The effect of a body focus on mind perception also influenced moral intuitions, with those represented as a body seen to be less morally responsible (i.e., lesser moral agents) but more sensitive to harm (i.e., greater moral patients; Experiments 5 and 6). These effects suggest that a body focus does not cause objectification per se but, instead, leads to a redistribution of perceived mind.

208 citations


Book
Mohan J. Dutta1
21 Mar 2011
TL;DR: Theorizing Social Change Communication and the Praxis of social change communication are discussed.
Abstract: Communicating Social Change: Structure, Culture, and Agency explores the use of communication to transform global, national, and local structures of power that create and sustain oppressive conditions. Author Mohan J. Dutta describes the social challenges that exist in current globalization politics, and examines the communicative processes, strategies, and tactics through which social change interventions are constituted in response to the challenges. Using empirical evidence and case studies, he documents the ways through which those in power create conditions at the margins, and he provides a theoretical base for discussing the ways in which these positions of power are resisted through communication processes, strategies, and tactics. The interplay of power and control with resistance is woven through each of the chapters in the book. This exceptional volume highlights the points of intersection between the theory and praxis of social change communication, creating theoretical entry points for the praxis of social change. It is intended for communication scholars and students studying activism, social movements, and communication for social change, and it will also resonate in such disciplines such as development, sociology, and social work, with those who are studying social transformations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article developed a framework for studying generations in organizations that draws on multiple conceptualizations across multiple disciplines, including chronology and genealogy, to characterize the linkages between generations and predict a wide range of organizational outcomes such as change/innovation, conflict, turnover and socialization.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These results provide the first reliable evidence of the integration of motives of agency and communion in moral personality, and addressed and dismissed various alternative explanations, including chance co-occurrence and generalized complexity.
Abstract: Agency and communion are fundamental human motives, often conceptualized as being in tension. This study examines the notion that moral exemplars overcome this tension and adaptively integrate these 2 motives within their personality. Participants were 25 moral exemplars—recipients of a national award for extraordinary volunteerism—and 25 demographically matched comparison participants. Each participant responded to a life review interview and provided a list of personal strivings, which were coded for themes of agency and communion; interviews were also coded for the relationship between agency and communion. Results consistently indicated that exemplars not only had both more agency and communion than did comparison participants but were also more likely to integrate these themes within their personality. Consistent with our claim that enlightened self-interest is driving this phenomenon, this effect was evident only when agency and communion were conceptualized in terms of promoting interests (of the self and others, respectively) and not in terms of psychological distance (from others) and only when the interaction was observed with a person approach and not with the traditional variable approach. After providing a conceptual replication of these results using different measures elicited in different contexts and relying on different coding procedures, we addressed and dismissed various alternative explanations, including chance co-occurrence and generalized complexity. These results provide the first reliable evidence of the integration of motives of agency and communion in moral personality.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper surveys the literature on publics: political subjects that know themselves and act by means of mass-mediated communication and examines classic accounts of how publics form through interlocking modes of social interaction, as well as the forms of social interactions that publics have been defined against.
Abstract: This review surveys the literature on publics: political subjects that know themselves and act by means of mass-mediated communication. It examines classic accounts of how publics form through interlocking modes of social interaction, as well as the forms of social interaction that publics have been defined against. It also addresses recent work that has sought to account for contradictions within theories of the public sphere and to develop alternative understandings of public culture. Historical and ethnographic research on this topic reveals that some concept of publicity is foundational for a number of theories of self-determination, but that the subject of publicity is irrevocably enmeshed in the very technological, linguistic, and conceptual means of its own self-production. Research on publics is valuable because it has focused on this paradox of mediation at the center of modern political life.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a rhetorical model of institutionalism is proposed to explain how institutions both constrain and enable agency in an ambiguous and thus rhetorical world, where knowledge operated as an institutionalized myth and rationality surrogate.
Abstract: In 1993, Mats Alvesson published ‘Organizations as Rhetoric’. In his paper, Alvesson proposed that knowledge was ambiguous and that rhetoric was therefore critical to the construction and operation of institutions and organizations. Moreover, he argued that in such an ambiguous and thus rhetorical world, knowledge operated as an institutionalized myth and rationality surrogate. Alvesson's insights helped inspire and initiate one of the most promising and growing areas of institutional research: rhetorical institutionalism. Rhetorical institutionalism is the deployment of linguistic approaches in general and rhetorical insights in particular to explain how institutions both constrain and enable agency. In this paper, we trace these original insights and discuss the benefits of continuing the integration of rhetorical ideas in institutional research. In addition, we propose and develop a rhetorical model of institutionalism that can spearhead research and conclude with some direct suggestions for future research.

Book
29 Nov 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative study based in northern England, and then broadening the data to include Europe and North America, the authors explore how people "believe in belonging" and choose religious identifications to complement other social and emotional experiences of "belongings".
Abstract: The book draws on empirical research exploring mainstream religious belief and identity in Euro-American countries. Starting from a qualitative study based in northern England, and then broadening the data to include Europe and North America, the book explores how people ‘believe in belonging’, choosing religious identifications to complement other social and emotional experiences of ‘belongings’. The concept of ‘performative belief‘ helps explain how otherwise non-religious people can bring into being a Christian identity related to social belongings. Further, it is argued that what is often dismissed as ‘nominal‘ belief is far from an empty category, but one loaded with cultural ‘stuff‘ and meaning. Day introduces an original typology of natal, ethnic and aspirational nominalism that challenges established disciplinary theory in both the European and North American schools of the sociology of religion that assert that most people are ‘unchurched‘ or ‘believe without belonging‘ while privately maintaining beliefs in God and other ‘spiritual‘ phenomena. Day creates a unique analysis and synthesis of anthropological and sociological understandings of belief and proposes a holistic, organic, multidimensional analytical framework to allow rich cross cultural comparisons. Chapters focus in particular on: methods for researching belief without asking religious questions, the acts of claiming cultural identity, youth, gender, the ‘social‘ supernatural, fate and agency, morality and a distinction between anthropocentric and theocentric orientations that provides a richer understanding of belief than conventional religious/secular distinctions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that everyday judgments ofmoral status are influenced by perceptions of humanness, and it is shown that distinct human characteristics are linked to specific judgments of moral status.
Abstract: Being human implies a particular moral status: having moral value, agency, and responsibility. However, people are not seen as equally human. Across two studies, we examine the consequences that subtle variations in the perceived humanness of actors or groups have for their perceived moral status. Drawing on Haslam's two-dimensional model of humanness and focusing on three ways people may be considered to have moral status - moral patiency (value), agency, or responsibility - we demonstrate that subtly denying humanness to others has implications for whether they are blamed, praised, or considered worthy of moral concern and rehabilitation. Moreover, we show that distinct human characteristics are linked to specific judgments of moral status. This work demonstrates that everyday judgments of moral status are influenced by perceptions of humanness.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors introduce a set of articles that, using diverse feminist knowledges and practices, aim to expose the force relations that operate through and upon bodies, such that particular subjectivities are enhanced, constrained and put to work, and particular corporealities are violated, exploited and often abandoned.
Abstract: Here, we introduce a themed set of articles that, using diverse feminist knowledges and practices, aims to expose the force relations that operate through and upon bodies, such that particular ‘geopolitical’ subjectivities are enhanced, constrained and put to work, and particular corporealities are violated, exploited and often abandoned. The substantive scope of these articles highlights the relevance of such feminist analysis, not as a universalising framework, but as a project of universal reach. The empirical depth of this work, founded upon (variously) a committed period of fieldwork, the careful gathering of lengthy, in situ interviews, participant observation, focus groups, visual methodology and months spent in the archives highlights a complex, feminist ethics of care. Taken as a collection, what we hope these articles make clear are the manifold struggles within feminist analysis in regard to ‘researching with’ embodiment, agency, passivity, vulnerability, emotion, praxis and care.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that transdisciplinarity will be fostered by a disciplined approach to practice theory, based on a commitment to social practices, and respect for agency, materiality, discourse, the limits of social scientific knowledge and a refusal of reductionism.
Abstract: This paper comments on Faure and Rouleau (2011) and draws out implications for practice-theoretic research in organizations more generally. In particular, it points to the potential for the transdisciplinary application of practice theory, allowing issues, insights and methods to be transferred between all the organization disciplines, not just accounting and strategy. Responding to some recent criticisms of practice-theoretic research in organizations, the paper argues that transdisciplinarity will be fostered by a disciplined approach to practice theory, based on a commitment to social practices, and respect for agency, materiality, discourse, the limits of social scientific knowledge and a refusal of reductionism.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that designers are hermeneutists of proximal taste regimes, for the possibilities of new styles of action, and that a key aspect of the agency of designing lies in this taste literacy of designers.

Posted Content
TL;DR: A growing body of literature in organization studies draws on the idea that communication constitutes organization, often abbreviated to CCO as discussed by the authors and introduces Luhmann's theory of social systems as a prominent example of CCO thinking.
Abstract: A growing body of literature in organization studies draws on the idea that communication constitutes organization, often abbreviated to CCO This paper introduces Luhmann’s theory of social systems as a prominent example of CCO thinking I argue that Luhmann’s perspective contributes to current conceptual debates on how communication constitutes organization The theory of social systems highlights that organizations are fundamentally grounded in paradox because they are built on communicative events that are contingent by nature Consequently, organizations are driven by the continuous need to deparadoxify their inherent contingency In that respect, Luhmann’s approach fruitfully combines a processual, communicative conceptualization of organization with the notion of boundary and self-referentiality Notwithstanding the merits of Luhmann’s approach, its accessibility tends to be limited due to the hermetic terminology that it employs and the fact that it neglects the role of material agency in the communicative construction of organizations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An enhanced binding of effects back towards the actions that caused them, implying an enhanced sense of agency, in moral compared to non-moral contexts is found.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a critical analysis of the scholarship on issues that constitute the core of the intellectual discourse on gender in the Middle East is presented, including the critique of Orientalism past and present; the exploration of the diversity within Islam; the study of states and gender with respect to symbolic representations, institutions, and kin-based solidarities; the analysis of women's agency; and the debates surrounding feminism and the veil.
Abstract: The scholarship on gender in the Middle East takes two objectives as its mandate: first, to dismantle the stereotype of passive and powerless Muslim women and, second, to challenge the notion that Islam shapes women's condition in the same way in all places. The urgency of this endeavor is heightened by the fact that gender has come to demarcate battle lines in geopolitical struggles since September 11, 2001, and to occupy a central place in the discourse of international relations in regard to Muslim countries. To reflect the major developments in the field, I offer a critical analysis of the scholarship on issues that constitute the core of the intellectual discourse on gender in the Middle East. These include the critique of Orientalism past and present; the exploration of the diversity within Islam; the study of states and gender with respect to symbolic representations, institutions, and kin-based solidarities; the analysis of women's agency; and the debates surrounding feminism and the veil.

Book
01 Nov 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the scope of the discipline and the nature of human nature are discussed in the context of divided criminology and determinism versus agency: is crime the result of forces beyond the individual's control or free choice?
Abstract: Preface 1 A Divided Criminology 2 The Scope of the Discipline: What Is Crime? 3 Determinism versus Agency: Is Crime the Result of Forces beyond the Individual's Control or Free Choice? 4 The Nature of Human Nature: Are People Self-Interested, Socially Concerned, or Blank Slates? 5 The Nature of Society: Is Society Characterized by Consensus or Conflict? 6 The Nature of Reality: Is There an Objective Reality That Can Be Accurately Measured? 7 A Unified Criminology Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index About the Author

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an informal social network (ISN) model was proposed to explain individually rational non-altruistic voting participation in the United States, and the authors found that if group variables that affect whether voting is used as a marker of individual standing in groups are included, the likelihood of turnout rises dramatically.
Abstract: Classical rational choice explanations of voting participation are widely thought to have failed. This article argues that the currently dominant Group Mobilization and Ethical Agency approaches have serious shortcomings in explaining individually rational turnout. It develops an informal social network (ISN) model in which people rationally vote if their informal networks of family and friends attach enough importance to voting, because voting leads to social approval and vice versa. Using results from the social psychology literature, research on social groups in sociology and their own survey data, the authors argue that the ISN model can explain individually rational non-altruistic turnout. If group variables that affect whether voting is used as a marker of individual standing in groups are included, the likelihood of turnout rises dramatically.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, actor-network theory is used to develop the creation view and further our understanding of entrepreneurial processes, which is a fully developed theoretical alternative to the discovery view, however, there is still a heated debate on the nature of opportunities.
Abstract: Entrepreneurship scholars argue that opportunities are at the heart of entrepreneurial activity. Yet, there is still a heated debate on the nature of opportunities. The discovery view argues that opportunities are discovered and have objective existence prior to the entrepreneurial process. The creation view argues that the discovery view is incomplete and makes wrongful assumptions about agency, process and opportunities in entrepreneurship. More conceptual development, however, is needed for the creation view to become a fully developed theoretical alternative to the discovery view. In this article, Actor-Network Theory is used to develop the creation view and further our understanding of entrepreneurial processes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The data show that explicit perspective taking strategy has profound impact on the neural recruitment associated with distinct behaviors as well as their moral consequences, and can inform new strategies both for therapeutic interventions for patients with socioemotional disorders and the education of medical practitioners.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that the performative outcomes of digital encoding are best understood within a more general horizon of the phenomenon of encoding – that is to say as norm- or rule- governs material enactments accepted (or taken for granted) as the necessary conditions for becoming.
Abstract: This paper is about the phenomenon of encoding, more specifically about the encoded extension of agency. The question of code most often emerges from contemporary concerns about the way digital encoding is seen to be transforming our lives in fundamental ways, yet seems to operate ‘under the surface’ as it were. In this essay I suggest that the performative outcomes of digital encoding are best understood within a more general horizon of the phenomenon of encoding – that is to say as norm- or rule-governed material enactments accepted (or taken for granted) as the necessary conditions for becoming. Encoded material enactments translate/extend agency, but never exactly. I argue that such encoded extensions are insecure, come at a cost and are performative. To illustrate this I present a brief discussion of some specific historical transitions in the encoding of human agency: from speech to writing, to mechanical writing, and finally to electronic writing. In each of these translations I aim to show that agency is translated/extended in ways that have many unexpected performative outcomes. Specifically, through a discussion of the digital encoding of writing, as reuse, I want to suggest the proposition that all agency is always borrowed (or ‘plagiarized’) – i.e. it is never originally human. As encoded beings we are never authors, we are rather more or less skilful reusers. To extend agency we have to submit to the demands of encoding and kidnap that encoding simultaneously – enabling constraints in Butler’s language. Our originality, if there is any, is in our skill at kidnapping the code and turning it into an extension of our agency, that is to say, our skill at resignification – to be original we need to be skilful ‘parasites’, as suggested by Serres.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current paper develops an integrated theoretical framework that incorporates structural inequalities while leaving intact the role of individual agency and discusses the implications and contributions of the social resistance framework.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the extent to which broad global changes promoting human empowerment are associated with expanded ideas of the status and capacities of students and found that student-centered texts are more common in countries with greater individualism embodied in political and socioeconomic institutions and ideologies, and with more links to world society.
Abstract: A striking feature of modern societies is the extent to which individual persons are culturally validated as equal and empowered actors. The expansion of a wide range of rights in recent decades, given prominence in current discussions of world society, supports an expanded conception of the individual. We examine the extent to which broad global changes promoting human empowerment are associated with expanded ideas of the status and capacities of students. We hypothesize that there are substantial increases in student-centered educational foci in countries around the world. First, the rights of students as children are directly asserted. Second, an emphasis on empowered human agency supports forms of socialization that promote active participation as well as the capacities and interests of the student. Examining a unique dataset of 533 secondary school social science textbooks from 74 countries published over the past 40 y ears, we find that textbooks have indeed become more student-centered, and that this shift is associated with the rising status of individuals and children in global human rights treaties and organizations. Student-centered texts are more common in countries with greater individualism embodied in political and socio-economic institutions and ideologies, and with more links to world society. The study contributes to both political and educational sociology, examining how global changes lead to increased emphasis on empowered individual agency in intended curricula.