Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 2015"

Assemblages and Actor-networks: Rethinking Socio-material Power, Politics and Space

Abstract: Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory (ANT) have been at the forefront of a paradigm shift that sees space and agency as the result of associating humans and non-humans to form precarious wholes. This shift offers ways of rethinking the relations between power, politics and space from a more processual, socio-material perspective. After sketching and comparing the concepts of the assemblage and the actor-network, this paper reviews the current scholarship in human geography which clusters around the four themes of deterritorialisation/reterritorialisation; power; materials, objects and technologies; and topological space. Looking towards the future, it suggests that assemblage thinking and ANT would benefit from exploring links with other social theories, arguing for a more sustained engagement with issues of language and power, and affect and the body.

Furthering critical institutionalism

Abstract: This special issue furthers the study of natural resource management from a critical institutional perspective. Critical institutionalism (CI) is a contemporary body of thought that explores how institutions dynamically mediate relationships between people, natural resources and society. It focuses on the complexity of institutions entwined in everyday social life, their historical formation, the interplay between formal and informal, traditional and modern arrangements, and the power relations that animate them. In such perspectives a social justice lens is often used to scrutinise the outcomes of institutional processes. We argue here that critical institutional approaches have potentially much to offer commons scholarship, particularly through the explanatory power of the concept of bricolage for better understanding institutional change. Critical institutional approaches, gathering momentum over the past 15 years or so, have excited considerable interest but the insights generated from different disciplinary perspectives remain insufficiently synthesised. Analyses emphasising complexity can be relatively illegible to policy-makers, a fact which lessens their reach. This special issue therefore aims to synthesise critical institutional ideas and so to lay the foundation for moving beyond the emergent stage to make meaningful academic and policy impact. In bringing together papers here we define and synthesise key themes of critical institutionalism, outline the concept of institutional bricolage and identity some key challenges facing this school of thought.

New Materialisms: Foucault and the 'Government of Things'

Abstract: The article explores the perspectives of Foucault’s notion of government by linking it to the debate on the ‘new materialism’. Discussing Karen Barad’s critical reading of Foucault’s work on the body and power, it points to the idea of a ‘government of things’, which Foucault only briefly outlines in his lectures on governmentality. By stressing the ‘intrication of men and things’ (Foucault), this theoretical project makes it possible to arrive at a relational account of agency and ontology, going beyond the anthropocentric limitations of Foucault’s work. This perspective also suggests an altered understanding of biopolitics. While Foucault’s earlier concept of biopolitics was limited to physical and biological existence, the idea of a ‘government of things’ takes into account the interrelatedness and entanglements of men and things, the natural and the artificial, the physical and the moral. Finally, the conceptual proposal of a ‘government of things’ helps to clarify theoretical ambiguities and unresolv...

Critical junctures and institutional change

Abstract: Critical juncture analysis is popular in comparative-historical analysis (CHA) since it provides tools for studying the political origins and reform of important institutional arrangements that exert a long-lasting influence on their social and political environment. This chapter clarifies a number of theoretical and conceptual issues, explores the strengths and weaknesses of the critical juncture approach, and proposes a methodological strategy for studying critical junctures in comparative perspective. It is necessary to define the scope of the discussion by making two preliminary observations. First, the “dual” model of historical development intrinsic to critical juncture analysis – shorter phases of fluidity and change alternating with longer periods of stability and adaptation – has been applied to a wide range of outcomes and entities, from individual life histories to the development of groups and organizations and the evolution of entire societies (e.g., Swidler 1986, 280). In this chapter, I focus on the use of the concept of critical junctures in the context of the development of institutions , broadly defined as organizations, formal rules, public policies, political regimes, and political economies. These have generally been the object of critical juncture analysis in CHA in both political science and sociology. Second, within CHA, the concept of critical juncture applies only to the analysis of path-dependent institutions and not to all forms of institutional development. The analysis of critical junctures is a part of path dependence arguments, according to which institutional arrangements put in place at a certain point in time become entrenched because of their ability to shape the incentives, worldviews, and resources of the actors and groups affected by the institution. In this analytical context, critical junctures are cast as moments in which uncertainty as to the future of an institutional arrangement allows for political agency and choice to play a decisive causal role in setting an institution on a certain path of development, a path that then persists over a long period of time.

Agency, Shmagency: Why Normativity Won't Come from What is Constitutive of Action

Abstract: There is a fairly widespread – and very influential – hope among philosophers interested in the status of normativity that the solution to our metaethical and more generally metanormative problems will emerge from the philosophy of action. What we need, so the thought goes, is to better understand what action and agency consist in. With this understanding in hand, we will then have all that we need in order to give a philosophical account of reasons for action, or of (practical) normativity altogether.In this paper I argue that this hope is unfounded. Focusing on the work of Rosati, Velleman and Korsgaard, I argue that normativity cannot be grounded in what is constitutive of action. After presenting the objection to this strategy, I then address several – actual and possible – retorts, concluding that these thinkers have not been able to address the worry, and that it does not seem likely that they can.

Predicting public sector accountability : From agency drift to forum drift

Abstract: Principal-agent theory has been the dominant theory at the heart of public sector accountability research The notion of the potentially drifting agent-such as independent public agencies, opaque transnational institutions, or recalcitrant street-level bureaucrats-has been the guiding paradigm in empirical accountability research The aim of this article is first of all to signal the limits of principal-agent theory as a predictive model of how accountability evolves A string of findings in accountability research shows that we are in practice often not dealing with the envisaged problem of drifting agents (or actors in accountability terminology) Unexpectedly, we encounter recurring reports of drifting principals, or more accurately forums, which mysteriously choose not to hold their agents accountable The article puts forward possible reasons for the observed discrepancies encountered in public accountability research, by identifying why such situations are at odds with the model's assumptions, as well as theoretical suggestions on fruitful ways to go forward In the end, this study seeks to provide building blocks for theories of public sector accountability with an improved predictive capacity This is done by connecting descriptive studies of the multifaceted character of accountability to "classical" principal-agent theory concerns about agency and control

Action, Knowledge, and Will

Abstract: Preface 1. Agency and the Will 2. Action and Integration 3. Acts and Events 4. Voluntariness and Choice 5. Desire and Intention 6. Reason and Knowledge 7. Knowledge as an Ability 8. The Road to Larissa Appendix: The Modern Theory of the Will Endnotes Bibliography Acknowledgements Index

Sustainable careers: Introductory chapter

Abstract: In this introductory chapter we will introduce the concept of ‘sustainable careers’ within the broader framework of contemporary careers. Departing from changes in the career context with regard to the dimensions of time, social space, agency and meaning, we advocate a fresh perspective on careers that recognizes the complexity of the career concept, thereby elaborating on existing career concepts, rather than aiming to replace them. Subsequently, we come up with a definition of the concept: ‘the sequence of an individual’s different career experiences, reflected through a variety of patterns of continuity over time, crossing several social spaces, and characterized by individual agency, herewith providing meaning to the individual.’ Next, we will outline how sustainable careers are conceived and examined theoretically or empirically throughout the different chapters of this Handbook.

Public Sector Management Reform in Developing Countries: Perspectives Beyond NPM Orthodoxy

Abstract: Summary With the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, the hegemony of the New Public Management (NPM) (now no longer new) as the dominant approach to public sector reform has weakened, particularly as applied to developing countries. What alternative frameworks for theory and practice offer insights and guidance beyond the NPM orthodoxy? This article offers some answers to this question and draws upon the contributions to this special issue to explore four analytic strands that constitute post-NPM approaches to reform: political economy and institutions, public management function over form, iterative and adaptive reform processes, and individual and collective agency. The discussion highlights the significance of functional mimicry, the challenges of measuring results, the practical difficulties in achieving contextual fit and accounting for the inherent uncertainty in reform processes, the tensions between ownership and outside expertise, and unpacking political economy dynamics within various micro-contexts and across regime types. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identity and Agency

Abstract: Identity is a complex and multifaceted construct that, when considered within a binary, digital environment, is divided into two constituent and occasionally conflicting parts: the collection of information that relates to a single entity (digital identity) and the representation of the self-identity in the digital space (online identity). This entry primarily considers the latter, including the ways it is expressed in an anonymized space – both at an individual and a social level – and the structures that inhibit and support its expression. It also explores the necessary role in digital identity in creating the online environments that make up the technologically mediated world, and the negotiations currently debated between social science, philosophy, law, and computer science for creating an identity-rich and safe digital media. Keywords: anonymity; Big Data; digital identity; game characters, avatars, and identity; networked individualism; online identity; possible selves

Understanding health through social practices: performance and materiality in everyday life.

Abstract: The importance of recognising structure and agency in health research to move beyond methodological individualism is well documented. To progress incorporating social theory into health, researchers have used Giddens' and Bourdieu's conceptualisations of social practice to understand relationships between agency, structure and health. However, social practice theories have more to offer than has currently been capitalised upon. This article delves into contemporary theories of social practice as used in consumption and sustainability research to provide an alternative, and more contextualised means, of understanding and explaining human action in relation to health and wellbeing. Two key observations are made. Firstly, the latest formulations of social practice theory distinguish moments of practice performance from practices as persistent entities across time and space, allowing empirical application to explain practice histories and future trajectories. Secondly, they emphasise the materiality of everyday life, foregrounding things, technologies and other non-humans that cannot be ignored in a technologically dependent social world. In concluding, I argue the value of using contemporary social practice theories in health research is that they reframe the way in which health outcomes can be understood and could inform more effective interventions that move beyond attitudes, behaviour and choices.

Précis of Shared agency: a planning theory of acting together

Abstract: We have an important capacity to act together, a capacity for shared intentional activity. Such shared activities are important in our lives. They are important instrumentally: think about the usefulness of shared conversation. And they are important to us non-instrumentally: think about the joys of shared conversation. A theory of human thought and action needs to be, in part, a theory of human thinking and acting together. Shared intentional activity of the sort of interest here is not merely strategic interaction. Walking together (in Margaret Gilbert’s wonderful example) is not merely walking alongside each other. But shared intentional activity also need not be embedded in a framework of promises or the like: think of Hume’s rowers who row together ‘‘tho’ they have never given promises to each other.’’ My focus in this book is on small-scale cases of shared intentional activity that need not be embedded in a larger institution and that do not involve asymmetric authority relations. I focus on duets rather than orchestras with conductors. I call such small-scale cases of shared intentional activity cases of modest sociality. Some have supposed that an adequate theory of modest sociality will need to draw on conceptual, metaphysical, and/or normative resources that go significantly beyond those that are central to our understanding of individual intentional agency. For example, John Searle believes that we will need to appeal to a fundamentally new state of the minds of participants: we-intention. And Margaret Gilbert believes that we will need to appeal to a fundamentally new inter-relation of joint

A model for study of teacher agency for social justice

Abstract: Internationally teachers are called upon to act as agents of change. However, there is little clarity about the kind of change teachers are expected to contribute to and even less empirical evidence about the ways teacher agency operates in schools and beyond. Empirical analyses of teacher agency require a clear articulation of the purpose and content of such agency in relation to a particular aspect of change, which could then help us specify appropriate units of analysis and generate hypotheses based on the insights provided by previous research. This paper articulates a model for study of teacher agency as a process whereby teachers act strategically to transform the risks of exclusion and underachievement into inclusion and improved outcomes for all students in contexts of cultural and social diversity. The model is guided by social theories of human agency within social structures and cultures, applied to the empirical insights into teachers’ inclusive practices. Potentially appropriate units of anal...

Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency:

Abstract: New methods to analyse social media data provide a powerful way to know publics and capture what they say and do. At the same time, access to these methods is uneven, with corporations and governments tending to have best access to relevant data and analytics tools. Critics raise a number of concerns about the implications dominant uses of data mining and analytics may have for the public: they result in less privacy, more surveillance and social discrimination, and they provide new ways of controlling how publics come to be represented and so understood. In this paper, we consider if a different relationship between the public and data mining might be established, one in which publics might be said to have greater agency and reflexivity vis-a`-vis data power. Drawing on growing calls for alternative data regimes and practices, we argue that to enable this different relationship, data mining and analytics need to be democratised in three ways: they should be subject to greater public supervision and regulation, available and accessible to all, and used to create not simply known but reflexive, active and knowing publics. We therefore imagine conditions in which data mining is not just used as a way to know publics, but can become a means for publics to know themselves.

The Art and Science of Personality Development

Abstract: Prologue I. Becoming an Actor 1. In the Beginning ... 2. The Actor Takes the Stage: How We Perform Emotion 3. The Problem of Self-Regulation 4. The Actor Grows Up: How Traits Develop into Adulthood II. Becoming an Agent 5. The Age 5-7 Shift 6. The Motivational Agenda: What Agents Want 7. How Values Shape Agency: Morality, Religion, and Politics III. Becoming an Author 8. The Stories We Live By 9. Generative Lives, Redemptive Life Stories 10. The Sense of an Ending

Resilience and Justice

Abstract: The term resilience has become the popular formulation for plans that deal with preparedness for disaster. It implies adaptation rather than returning to a pre-crisis state. Its use has been extended from environmental events to social and economic crises. Its fault is that it obfuscates underlying conflict and the distribution of benefits resulting from policy choices. Development of resilience policies is cloaked in complicated models showing complexity and indeterminacy. Marxist analysis provides insights that cut through the failure of these models to assign agency, but it does not offer approaches short of revolution to assist present-day planning. The conclusion of the essay presents strategies that can lead to greater justice in planning to cope with the impacts of devastating events.

Defining personal reflexivity A critical reading of Archer’s approach

Abstract: Margaret Archer plays a leading role in the sociological analysis of the relation between structure and agency, and particularly in the study of reflexivity. The main aim of this article is to discuss her approach, focusing on the main contributions and limitations of Archer’s theory of reflexivity. It is argued that even though her research is a pioneering one, proposing an operationalization of the concept of reflexivity in view of its empirical implementation, it also minimizes crucial social factors and the dimensions necessary for a more complex and multi-dimensional study of the concept, such as social origins, family socialization, processes of internalization of exteriority, the role of other structure–agency mediation mechanisms and the persistence of social reproduction.

Groups as Agents

Abstract: In the social sciences and in everyday speech we often talk about groups as if they behaved in the same way as individuals, thinking and acting as a singular being. We say for example that "Google intends to develop an automated car", "the U.S. Government believes that Syria has used chemical weapons on its people", or that "the NRA wants to protect the rights of gun owners". We also often ascribe legal and moral responsibility to groups. But could groups literally intend things? Is there such a thing as a collective mind? If so, should groups be held morally responsible? Such questions are of vital importance to our understanding of the social world. In this lively, engaging introduction Deborah Tollefsen offers a careful survey of contemporary philosophers? answers to these questions, and argues for the unorthodox view that certain groups should, indeed, be treated as agents and deserve to be held morally accountable. Tollefsen explores the nature of belief, action and intention, and shows the reader how a belief in group agency can be reconciled with our understanding of individual agency and accountability. Groups as Agents will be a vital resource for scholars as well as for students of philosophy and the social sciences encountering the topic for the first time.

The Role of Agency and Morality in Reconciliation Processes: The Perspective of the Needs-Based Model

Abstract: According to the needs-based model of reconciliation, transgressions threaten victims’ sense of agency and perpetrators’ moral image. Consequently, victims and perpetrators experience heightened needs for empowerment and acceptance, respectively. Exchange interactions (e.g., expressions of apologies and forgiveness) through which victims and perpetrators satisfy each other’s needs facilitate reconciliation. We present research that has supported the model in both interpersonal and intergroup contexts. We then extend the model to “dual” conflicts, in which both parties transgress against each other and compete over the victim status, and to intergroup contexts of structural inequality. Finally, we discuss need satisfaction outside the victim-perpetrator dyad as an intriguing avenue for future research.

“Did You Notice That?” Theorizing Differences in the Capacity to Apprehend Institutional Contradictions

Abstract: Over the past decade, institutional researchers have relied extensively on the premise that institutional contradictions are key drivers of institutional instability and institutional change. In this article we argue that apprehending institutional contradictions—that is, experiencing institutional arrangements as provisional and potentially changeable upon encountering the contradictions—is more problematic than typically acknowledged. Drawing on insights from constructive developmental theory, we develop an individual-level theory that seeks to explain the differences in people’s capacity to apprehend institutional contradictions. The resulting framework proposes that there are important differences among people with respect to the nature of their investment in institutional arrangements that correspond to the differences in both blockages and facilitators of apprehension. The framework contributes important insights to the study of embedded agency and inhabited institutionalism, as well as strategic ch...

Women's Empowerment and Education: linking knowledge to transformative action

Abstract: Women's empowerment is a concept that has acquired substantial recognition in the past decade. However, it is better known among international development organisations, NGOs, and grassroots groups than in academic circles. This article examines the concept of women's empowerment as a foundational element in a theory of social change in which the oppressed must be key actors in the change process. On the basis of empirical evidence, it highlights four dimensions of empowerment: economic, political, knowledge, and psychological. The knowledge dimension is fostered by one of the most respected and universal of institutions: formal education. Yet schools do not always provide friendly or even safe spaces for girls; moreover, the school curriculum emphasises academic subjects and avoids ‘life skills’ discussions. Most successful cases of empowerment through education have occurred in non-formal education programmes that specifically promote critical reflection on gendered social norms and encourage corrective responses. The article argues that the empowerment process must consider the close connection between the private and the public arenas, as the private space seriously constrains women's availability and possibilities for transformative action; therefore, both macro- and micro-level interventions are needed to create a modified gender division of labour. The promotion of agency — at both the individual and collective levels — plays a major role in the development of women's empowerment. Such a process requires the engagement of non-state actors, particularly women-led NGOs. The article ends with challenges for policy.

Disciplinary Literacy in History

Abstract: In this article, we draw clear distinctions between generic reading comprehension and disciplinary literacy in history. We argue that disciplinary reading restores agency to the reader, changing the typical relationship between text and reader, in which knowledge flows down from one to the other. Sourcing, for example, enjoins readers to engage authors, querying them about their credentials, their interest in the story they are telling, their position vis-a-vis the event they narrate. Contextualization prompts the reader to question the social and political circumstances surrounding the text. In a digital age characterized by unfettered access to information, such skills become essential tools for an informed citizenry.

The problem of social generations: a critique of the new emerging orthodoxy in youth studies

Abstract: Over the previous seven years the application of a social generation paradigm or ‘theory’ has gained increasing currency as a method in analysing young people's relationship with the life course. Whilst not a new concept or approach its resurgence and reconfiguration to ‘new’ times has seen some writers positioning it as a ‘new orthodoxy’ or ‘consensus’ within youth studies. In this it is seen as providing a conceptual framework that better helps us understand the complexity of circumstances and conditions that shape youth identities in late modern society. In this paper we examine and explore the underlying assumptions and claims that are made by those advocating the social generational paradigm, raising questions and seeking further clarification on a number of key themes. We accept youth studies needs to move beyond ‘old models’ that define and understand social context as a simply a tension between ‘structure or/and agency’ or as a ‘flavour’ to social action. To conclude therefore we propose the need ...

Exploring institutional adaptive capacity in practice: examining water governance adaptation in Australia.

Abstract: Adaptive capacity is widely held as a key property of resilient and transformative social-ecological systems. However, current knowledge of the term does not yet address key questions of how to operationalize this system condition to address sustainability challenges through research and policy. This paper explores temporal and agency dimensions of adaptive capacity in practice to better understand how system conditions and attributes enable adaptation. An institutional dynamics lens is employed to systemically examine empirical cases of change in urban water management. Comparative analysis of two Australian cities' drought response is conducted using institutional analysis and qualitative system dynamics mapping techniques. The study finds that three forms of adaptive capacity appear critical: the ability to learn, decide, and act. The analytical approach developed provides insight into change dynamics and the agency mechanisms that generate them. The paper proposes a typology of adaptive capacity by characterizing these change dynamics and mechanisms for locked-in, crisis, reorganizing, and stabilizing systems. This set of propositions on institutional conditions and forms of adaptive capacity is offered to further advance research on the topic and help to operationalize adaptive capacity in practice.

Agent‐based models in sociology

Abstract: This article looks at 20 years of applications of agent-based models (ABMs) in sociology and, in particular, their explanatory achievements and methodological insights. These applications have helped sociologists to examine agent interaction in social outcomes and have helped shift analyses away from structural and aggregate factors, to the role of agency. They have improved the realism of the micro-behavioral foundations of sociological models, by complementing analytic modeling and game theory–inspired analyses. Secondly, they have helped us to dissect the role of social structures in constraining individual behavior more precisely than in variable-based sociology. Finally, simulation outcomes have given us a more dynamic view of the interplay between individual behavior and social structures, thus promoting a more evolutionary and process-based approach to social facts. Attention here has been paid to social norms, social influence, and culture dynamics, across different disciplines such as behavioral sciences, complexity science, sociology, and economics. We argue that these applications can help sociology to achieve more rigorous research standards, by promoting a modeling environment and providing tighter cross-disciplinary integration. Recently, certain methodological improvements toward model standardization, replication, and validation have been achieved. As a result, the impact of these models in sociology is expected to grow even more in the future. WIREs Comput Stat 2015, 7:284–306. doi: 10.1002/wics.1356 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.

Caring Leadership: A Heideggerian Perspective:

Abstract: This paper develops the idea of caring leadership based on Heidegger’s philosophy of care. From this perspective, caring leadership is grounded in the practices of ‘leaping-in’ and ‘leaping-ahead’ as modes of intervention in the affairs of the world and the efforts of others. This involves gauging and taking responsibility for the ramifications of intervention, balancing the urge for certainty of outcome and visibility of contribution with the desire to encourage and enable others. Our analysis suggests several twists to contemporary leadership debates. We argue that the popular models of transactional and transformational leadership are to be critiqued not for their over-reliance but, rather, their under-reliance on agency. This is a different kind of agency to that of heroic or charismatic models. It involves tolerance of complexity and ambivalence; a rich sense of temporal trajectory; concern for one’s presence in the world; and crucially, the ability to resist the soothing normativity of ‘best practice’. From this position, we argue that the problem with the growing scholarly interest in an ethic of care is that it provides too tempting a recipe to follow. In a Heideggerian view, caring leadership has little to do with compassion, kindness or niceness; it involves and requires a fundamental organization and leadership of self.