Showing papers on "Agency (philosophy) published in 2019"

Big Data from the South(s): Beyond data universalism

Abstract: This article introduces the tenets of a theory of datafication of and in the Souths. It calls for a de-Westernization of critical data studies, in view of promoting a reparation to the cognitive injustice that fails to recognize non-mainstream ways of knowing the world through data. It situates the “Big Data from the South” research agenda as an epistemological, ontological, and ethical program and outlines five conceptual operations to shape this agenda. First, it suggests moving past the “universalism” associated with our interpretations of datafication. Second, it advocates understanding the South as a composite and plural entity, beyond the geographical connotation (i.e., “global South”). Third, it postulates a critical engagement with the decolonial approach. Fourth, it argues for the need to bring agency to the core of our analyses. Finally, it suggests embracing the imaginaries of datafication emerging from the Souths, foregrounding empowering ways of thinking data from the margins.

Education as a Lifelong Process

Abstract: In modern societies, education has become a lifelong process. This has made the principles of life-course research of utmost significance in empirical education research. As stated by Glen H. Elder, these can be described as: (1) focusing on long-term educational processes over the individual lifespan; (2) considering individual educational pathways within their institutional and social embeddedness (e.g., within not only formal educational institutions but also nonformal/informal contexts such as the family, peer groups, and other social networks); (3) analyzing decision-making processes in education linked to the idea of agency and the idea of plan-making, creative, and self-determining actors; (4) investigating the time structure and timing of educational events and transitions and the consequences they have for the subsequent educational pathways and educational chances; and (5) conceptually differentiating age, cohort, and period effects. This chapter discusses the importance of these five principles for the conception, design, and possibilities for analysis of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). In the context of these principles, we formulate methodological advantages of longitudinal data on educational processes that can be attained within the idea of NEPS. In particular, panel data improve the opportunities to describe trajectories of growth and development over the life course and to study the patterns of causal relationships over longer time spans.

New directions in earth system governance research

Abstract: The Earth System Governance project is a global research alliance that explores novel, effective governance mechanisms to cope with the current transitions in the biogeochemical systems of the planet. A decade after its inception, this article offers an overview of the project's new research framework (which is built upon a review of existing earth system governance research), the goal of which is to continue to stimulate a pluralistic, vibrant and relevant research community. This framework is composed of contextual conditions (transformations, inequality, Anthropocene and diversity), which capture what is being observed empirically, and five sets of research lenses (architecture and agency, democracy and power, justice and allocation, anticipation and imagination, and adaptiveness and reflexivity). Ultimately the goal is to guide and inspire the systematic study of how societies prepare for accelerated climate change and wider earth system change, as well as policy responses.

Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract: As debates about the policy and ethical implications of AI systems grow, it will be increasingly important to accurately locate who is responsible when agency is distributed in a system and control over an action is mediated through time and space. Analyzing several high-profile accidents involving complex and automated socio-technical systems and the media coverage that surrounded them, I introduce the concept of a moral crumple zone to describe how responsibility for an action may be misattributed to a human actor who had limited control over the behavior of an automated or autonomous system. Just as the crumple zone in a car is designed to absorb the force of impact in a crash, the human in a highly complex and automated system may become simply a component—accidentally or intentionally—that bears the brunt of the moral and legal responsibilities when the overall system malfunctions. While the crumple zone in a car is meant to protect the human driver, the moral crumple zone protects the integrity of the technological system, at the expense of the nearest human operator. The concept is both a challenge to and an opportunity for the design and regulation of human-robot systems. At stake in articulating moral crumple zones is not only the misattribution of responsibility but also the ways in which new forms of consumer and worker harm may develop in new complex, automated, or purported autonomous technologies.

Questions of agency: Capacity, subjectivity, spatiality and temporality:

Abstract: Geographies of Children, Youth and Families is flourishing, but its founding conceptions require critical reflection. This paper considers one key conceptual orthodoxy: the notion that children are...

Rethinking Masculinity Studies: Feminism, Masculinity, and Poststructural Accounts of Agency and Emotional Reflexivity:

Abstract: The past decades have seen a broadening of critical masculinity studies, where terms like the metrosexual, and frameworks like hegemonic masculinity have become staples in the study of men. Althoug...

Why Free Will Is Real

Abstract: A crystal-clear, scientifically rigorous argument for the existence of free will, challenging what many scientists and scientifically minded philosophers believe. Philosophers have argued about the nature and the very existence of free will for centuries. Today, many scientists and scientifically minded commentators are skeptical that it exists, especially when it is understood to require the ability to choose between alternative possibilities. If the laws of physics govern everything that happens, they argue, then how can our choices be free? Believers in free will must be misled by habit, sentiment, or religious doctrine. Why Free Will Is Real defies scientific orthodoxy and presents a bold new defense of free will in the same naturalistic terms that are usually deployed against it. Unlike those who defend free will by giving up the idea that it requires alternative possibilities to choose from, Christian List retains this idea as central, resisting the tendency to defend free will by watering it down. He concedes that free will and its prerequisites—intentional agency, alternative possibilities, and causal control over our actions—cannot be found among the fundamental physical features of the natural world. But, he argues, that’s not where we should be looking. Free will is a “higher-level” phenomenon found at the level of psychology. It is like other phenomena that emerge from physical processes but are autonomous from them and not best understood in fundamental physical terms—like an ecosystem or the economy. When we discover it in its proper context, acknowledging that free will is real is not just scientifically respectable; it is indispensable for explaining our world.

Agency, embodiment and enactment in psychosomatic theory and practice.

Abstract: In this paper, we examine some of the conceptual, pragmatic and moral dilemmas intrinsic to psychosomatic explanation in medicine, psychiatry and psychology. Psychosomatic explanation invokes a social grey zone in which ambiguities and conflicts about agency, causality and moral responsibility abound. This conflict reflects the deep-seated dualism in Western ontology and concepts of personhood that plays out in psychosomatic research, theory and practice. Illnesses that are seen as psychologically mediated tend also to be viewed as less real or legitimate. New forms of this dualism are evident in philosophical attacks on Engel's biopsychosocial approach, which was a mainstay of earlier psychosomatic theory, and in the recent Research Domain Criteria research programme of the US National institute of Mental Health which opts for exclusively biological modes of explanation of illness. We use the example of resignation syndrome among refugee children in Sweden to show how efforts to account for such medically unexplained symptoms raise problems of the ascription of agency. We argue for an integrative multilevel approach that builds on recent work in embodied and enactive cognitive science. On this view, agency can have many fine gradations that emerge through looping effects that link neurophenomenology, narrative practices and cultural affordances in particular social contexts. This multilevel ecosocial view points the way towards a renewed biopsychosocial approach in training and clinical practice that can advance person-centred medicine and psychiatry.

Social media and the future of open debate: a user-oriented approach to Facebook's filter bubble conundrum

Abstract: Drawing on a two-year project, Creating Facebook, this article explores how the actions and agency of Facebook users contribute to the distortion of information and polarisation of socio-political opinion. Facebook’s influence as a channel for the circulation of news has come under intense scrutiny recently, especially with regard to the dissemination of false stories. While this criticism has focused on the ‘filter bubbles’ created by the site’s personalisation algorithms, our research indicates that users’ own actions also play a key role in how the site operates as a forum for debate. Our findings show that the strategies people use to navigate the complex social space contribute to the polarising of debate, as they seek to avoid conflict with the diverse members of their network.

Feminist everyday political economy : space, time and violence

Abstract: It goes without saying that feminist International Political Economy (IPE) is concerned in one way or another with the everyday – conceptualised as both a site of political struggle and a site within which social relations are (re)produced and governed. Given the longstanding grounding of feminist research in everyday gendered experiences, many would ask: Why do we need an explicit feminist theorisation of the everyday? After all, notions of everyday life and everyday political struggle infuse feminist analysis. This article seeks to interrogate the concept of the everyday – questioning prevalent understandings of the everyday and asking whether there is analytical and conceptual utility to be gained in articulating a specifically feminist understanding of it. We argue that a feminist political economy of the everyday can be developed in ways that push theorisations of social reproduction in new directions. We suggest that one way to do this is through the recognition that social reproduction is the everyday alongside a three-part theorisation of space, time, and violence (STV). It is an approach that we feel can play an important role in keeping IPE honest – that is, one that recognises how important gendered structures of everyday power and agency are to the conduct of everyday life within global capitalism.

Liable, but Not in Control? Ensuring Meaningful Human Agency in Automated Decision-Making Systems

Abstract: Automated decision making is becoming the norm across large parts of society, which raises interesting liability challenges when human control over technical systems becomes increasingly limited. This article defines "quasi-automation" as inclusion of humans as a basic rubber-stamping mechanism in an otherwise completely automated decision-making system. Three cases of quasi- automation are examined, where human agency in decision making is currently debatable: self- driving cars, border searches based on passenger name records, and content moderation on social media. While there are specific regulatory mechanisms for purely automated decision making, these regulatory mechanisms do not apply if human beings are (rubber-stamping) automated decisions. More broadly, most regulatory mechanisms follow a pattern of binary liability in attempting to regulate human or machine agency, rather than looking to regulate both. This results in regulatory gray areas where the regulatory mechanisms do not apply, harming human rights by preventing meaningful liability for socio-technical decision making. The article concludes by proposing criteria to ensure meaningful agency when humans are included in automated decision-making systems, and relates this to the ongoing debate on enabling human rights in Internet infrastructure.

The behavioural foundations of urban and regional development: culture, psychology and agency

Abstract: Urban and regional development theory is largely rooted in explanations based on the location, agglomeration and organisation of firms, industries and capital. Contemporary economic geography theory, however, is moving towards a (re)turn to addressing the role of human behaviour in determining urban and regional development outcomes. This article focuses on the concepts of culture, personality psychology and agency in order to understand how these behavioural factors interact and result in development differentials across cities and regions. It is proposed that psychocultural behavioural patterns provide a basis for understanding the type and nature of human agency within cities and regions. Furthermore, it is argued that such agency is based on a rationality that is spatially bounded, and intrinsically linked to the nature, source and evolution of institutions and power. It is concluded that the integration of human behavioural aspects into urban and regional development theory offers significant potential for exploring and explaining long-term evolutionary patterns of development.

The heterogeneous relationship between board social ties and corporate environmental responsibility in an emerging economy

Abstract: Firms in emerging economies are faced with multiple, incompatible institutional forces in their environmental activities. Which of these forces will be dominant and instantiated within an organization is partly determined by the social relationships that a firm maintains with external actors. This paper investigates the relationship between board social ties and the level of environmental responsibility undertaken by firms in China, an emerging economy, by categorizing board social ties into three types in terms of the three isomorphic forces in the institutional field (coercive, normative and mimetic). Drawing on institutional and agency theories, using a sample of listed firms in environmentally sensitive industries, and a generalized least squares regression method, the results provide empirical evidence that ties that are linked to coercive and normative forces (i.e., political organizations and universities) are related to a higher level of environmental responsibility; however, those that are linked to mimetic forces (i.e., industrial peers) have a negative association with environmental responsibility, which is mitigated by CEO power. These findings suggest that the heterogeneous effects of board social ties on environmental responsibilities experienced by firms in a context of environmentalism are at an early stage.

Traces of the Past: History and Myth in Vico, Benjamin and Blumenberg

Abstract: This thesis argues that the dichotomy between ‘myth’ and ‘reason’ is untenable because myth is a primary inculcation of a rational life. This conclusion is based on the premise that myths are stories that connect individuals and communities to their pasts (both real and imagined). I offer a critique of Giambattista Vico's, Walter Benjamin's, and Hans Blumenberg's philosophical approaches to myth. All three argue that mythic stories are a locus where individuals and groups can reflect, and ‘work on’, their pasts. Myth, therefore, plays a vital role in how human beings come to orientate, and exercise, their historical, and thus rational, agency.

The curious promise of educationalising technological unemployment: What can places of learning really do about the future of work?

Abstract: University education is full of promise. Indeed universities have the capacity to create and shape, through staff and students, all kinds of enthralling ‘worlds’ and ‘new possibilities of life’. Yet students are encouraged increasingly to view universities as simply a means to an end, where neoliberal education delivers flexible skills to directly serve a certain type of capitalism. Additionally, the universal challenge of technological unemployment, alongside numerous other social issues, has become educationalised and portrayed in HE policy, as an issue to be solved by universities. The idea that more education can resolve the problem of technological unemployment is a political construction which has largely failed to deliver its promise. In this article, we look at educationalisation in hand with technologisation and we draw on a Critical Discourse Analysis of HE policies, to demonstrate the problems arising from taken for granted visions of neoliberal social development related to education, technology, and employment. To disrupt the tired visions of ‘techno-fixes’ and ‘edu-fixes’ we identify in these texts, we call for a radical re-imagining of HE policy. Instead of attributing responsibility for social change to abstract notions of education, market and technology, a new shared vision is needed where more agency is explicitly attributed to the researchers, teachers, and students who are the genuine human future of work.

Entrepreneurial inference in the high-technology start-up: a model for optimised decision making and principled praxis

Abstract: This study investigates antecedents to inquiry and creative decision making in situations characterised by unpredictable, rapid technological change; focussing on the kind of change witnessed since the advent of massively interconnected ‘Web2.0’ technologies. How agents of business creation interact with such technologies are viewed through the lenses of traditional theory, systems theory and process theory; each of which leads to novel theoretical and practical conclusions relating to change and agency. The ‘high-tech’ entrepreneur operating in the technologically dynamic setting of the technology start-up was chosen as the agent of analysis. Grounded theory was used to effect a textual analysis of interview narratives provided by fifteen such entrepreneurial respondents, each of whom responded to three research questions relating to change, decision making and creativity. Three conceptually dominant core categories - sensemaking, structured inquiry and principled praxis - emerged as analysis of the data advanced, suggesting a three-tiered, progressive structure to the inquiry. Sensemaking centred around foundational concepts relating to the generation and early formation of enterprise building such as narrative, structure-agency, and habitus; and in so doing exhibited synergy with a number of existing sociological theories concerning group and individual action in organizational settings. Structured inquiry focussed on concepts relating to individual and group inquiry and modes of learning in high-velocity, technological settings; and Principled praxis emerged as a consolidated ‘master conceptual category’, premised upon an aggregate/idealised mode of praxis where sense had been made and inquiry was well-defined. The concept of Principled praxis therefore represented the cumulative emergent outcome of the research endeavour, from which a theoretical construct of the ideal entrepreneurial mindset could be advanced. The construct was applied towards the formulation of a set of best-practice decision-making heuristics. Informed by a critical systems approach to the analysis, elements of practical reasoning as well as ethical components guided by the philosophies of Kant and the pragmatism of Peirce contributed to the philosophical justification of the emergent theory. An adaptive form of ‘entrepreneurial inference’ for the new ‘information’ economy is hereby proposed; the aim of which is to encourage ethically sound decision making according to a critically informed set of best-practice heuristics.

Earth Follies : Feminism, Politics and the Environment

Abstract: First published in 1993. The question of ‘agency’ is essential to our understanding of environmental problems - who is responsible, and why? Threats such as ozone depletion, global warming and overconsumption are all precipitated by the powerful institutions which shape modern life – institutions which are overwhelmingly controlled by men and dominated by masculine presumptions. Joni Seager argues that the gender bias inherent in western culture is inextricably linked to our environmental crisis. She analyses the traditional institutes of power – governments, the military and transnational corporations - and also takes a critical look at the equally patriarchal environmental establishment, comparing the work of the official environmental movement, grounded in masculine thought, with the smaller-scale, direct actions taken by women driven to protect their homes and communities. Earth Follies represents an incisive and utterly convincing feminist critique of our environmental crises, and offers radical and productive priorities for the environmental agenda.

Saving the robot or the human? Robots who feel deserve moral care.

Abstract: Robots are becoming an integral part of society, yet our moral stance toward these non-living objects is unclear. In two experiments, we investigated whether anthropomorphic appearance and anthropomorphic attributions modulated people's utilitarian decision making about robotic agents. In Study 1, participants were presented with moral dilemmas in which the to-be-sacrificed agent was either a human, a human-like robot, or a machine-like robot. These victims were described in either neutral or anthropomorphic priming stories. Study 2 teased apart anthropomorphic attributions of agency and affect. Results indicate that although robot-like robots were sacrificed significantly more often than humans and humanlike robots, the effect of humanized priming was the same for all three agent types (Study 1), and this effect was mainly due to the attribution of affective states rather than agency (Study 2). That is, when people attribute affective states to robots, they are less likely to sacrifice them in order to save humans.

Negotiating Development: a psychosocial study of Bangladeshi development workers

Abstract: A complex web of development organisations has emerged from efforts to alleviate the problems of enduring and gross inequalities in formerly Third World countries such as Bangladesh. While the social and economic circumstances of Bangladesh have improved, its democratic institutions have struggled, leading to a so-called ‘paradox’ of development. In this context economists and political scientists question the role of a growing global middle class, while postcolonial critics interrogate the very notion of ‘development’ and advocate alternative ‘post-development’ scenarios. In this milieu it is important to understand how dominant macro-policies and different perspectives affect the material realities of working for development on the ground. Previous research on the personnel of development aid has revealed a host of ethical, moral and political dilemmas, contradictions and paradoxes associated with aid work not least those faced by feminists within bureaucracies. The literature has tended to focus on international NGO workers from the global north. By contrast, this is a study of 24 English-speaking Bangladeshi individuals who are engaged in development work through NGOs, and other forms of activism within their own country. The aim of the research is to understand how these development workers negotiate the complex dilemmas and conflicting demands, and manage the emotional labour and demands of working for progressive social change. A psychosocial approach transcends the usual altruism-egotism binary to better understand the actions of and influences on this group, and allows for the interrogation of privilege, power and agency, and the relationships and emotional investments at stake. A narrative methodology helps reveal the conditions in which an individual life is lived and given meaning, and in which the development of the self and others can occur. Analytically, the study draws upon Bourdieusian models of social class distinctions, contemporary theorizations of the politics of emotions, and is informed by British psychoanalytic traditions. The study found a stratum of reflexive, well-resourced and highly committed workers and activists who skillfully manage the everyday dilemmas of development, albeit at some emotional cost. They are constrained by subjective classed and gendered identities and objective structures of governance. The women in the study were struggling for empowerment and opportunity both inside and outside the workplace despite the equalities discourse espoused by their NGO employers. The significance of family and kin, and wider identifications, compete with the ed framings of a neo-liberal development paradigm and further suggest the need for a re-consideration of the ethos and ethics of ‘development’.

Understanding the reproduction of health inequalities: physical activity, social class and Bourdieu’s habitus

Abstract: Health inequalities continue to exist in advanced capitalist economies and so-called lifestyle behaviours (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical (in)activity) play a role in their persistence. Interventionist responses to health inequalities are often posed in terms of either individual agency or social structure – the former being criticised for its shaming/responsibilising effects and the latter for inadequately conceptualising behavioural differences within socio-economic groups. In this paper, we attempt to reconcile these two positions by drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, arguing that health enhancing behaviours are better understood as practices constrained and enabled within social class contexts. As many interventionist health policies target young people in schools, we take the example of physical education and youth sport to illustrate how young people’s dispositions towards health practices are part of an emerging class habitus. We draw on data from a sociological...

Historical institutional child abuse: Activist mobilisation and public inquiries

Abstract: The abuse of children in institutional settings is an issue of ongoing social, public, and political concern internationally. While societal responses to historical abuse have been the subject of considerable scholarship in recent years, conceptualisation of the role of activism remains limited. This article aims to advance sociological and interdisciplinary perspectives on nonrecent institutional child abuse through a conceptualisation of activist mobilisation. The article begins by providing context for the emergence of institutional child abuse as a social issue. A brief overview of key themes and debates in the interdisciplinary literature is then offered, and a critical gap in current scholarship is identified in relation to activism. Drawing on illustrative examples of activist mobilisation, both in the form of survivor narratives and strategies aimed at influencing policy, the article sets out how a sociology of activism in the field of historical institutional child abuse might proceed. Through attention to the social dynamics of activism, and conceptualisation of collective action in this domain as a social movement, the article provides new insights for the field and an alternative to sociological theorisation of responses to historical institutional child abuse as simply constituting a public scandal or moral panic.

Admitting uncertainty, transforming engagement: towards caring practices for sustainability beyond climate change

Abstract: Transformations to sustainability for addressing climate change are now more urgent than ever. This paper argues that such transformations are firstly required in modernist practices that militate against sustainability due to their constitution by the fallacy of human control. The latter points to the conceit of suppressing uncertainties in knowledge, commandeering agency from ‘above’, standardising governance, harming marginalised ecologies and disqualifying practices inferiorised as ‘primitive’, ‘irrational’ or ‘vernacular’. Undoing the fallacy of control, by admitting uncertainties, modernist practices may become caring through transformative engagement with others. I propose four aspects of such transformative engagement: (a) egalitarian commitment to distributing epistemological privilege; (b) ontological sensitivity, by taking seriously the relational bases of others’ knowing; (c) learning for divergence from others; and (d) affinity in alterity across widening divergence. These aspects are proposed not as fully formed principles, but rather as questions to be reworked in ongoing encounters and struggles for sustainability and climate justice. The aim is to nurture other-than-modern understandings of climate challenges and to help build multiple coexisting pathways of resilience, adaptation and mitigation.

Autonomous Vehicles and the Attribution of Moral Responsibility

Abstract: With the imminent advent of autonomous vehicles (AVs) comes a moral dilemma: How do people assign responsibility in the event of a fatal accident? AVs necessarily create conditions in which “driver...

How does nature contribute to human mobility? A conceptual framework and qualitative analysis

Abstract: Different types of mobility are known as longstanding strategies used by humans to deal with environmental pressure. Immobility is relevant in this context as population groups may be at considerable risk but lacking the capacity or willingness to move. Despite significant advances in this research field, grasping especially the subjective dimension of people’s migration decision remains challenging. Moreover, the conceptualization of cultural factors in this context has received rather marginal attention thus far. In light of this, we propose a framework that integrates the novel concept of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) with migration theory, in particular the triad of migration need, ability, and aspiration. NCP goes beyond the popular notion of ecosystem services by conceiving nature-society relations in a more inclusive way with culture being a key element of these. Combined with migration need, ability, and aspiration, we argue that this approach offers a valuable nuanced perspective on nature-mobility interactions, including cultural aspects of natural resource use and varying degrees of agency related to mobility decision making. We apply the framework to two archetypal climate-related migration situations, southwestern coastal Bangladesh and the northern Ethiopian highlands, to delineate the diverse mechanisms through which environmental change shapes population movement in highly resource-dependent livelihoods. We show that based on the analyzed case studies most links can be drawn between material and regulating NCP and migration need, and that nonenvironmental factors play a crucial role in mediating nature’s contributions to human mobility. More knowledge is needed though in particular on the influence of nonmaterial NCP on mobility decision making and on migration aspirations in general to better account for important cultural factors. We formulate a number of hypotheses and questions relevant for guiding future research that can inform policy interventions.

Understanding digital health: Productive tensions at the intersection of sociology of health and science and technology studies.

Abstract: In this editorial introduction, we explore how digital health is being explored at the intersection of sociology of health and science and technology studies (STS). We suggest that socio-material approaches and practice theories provide a shared space within which productive tensions between sociology of health and STS can continue. These tensions emerge around the long-standing challenges of avoiding technological determinism while maintaining a clear focus on the materiality and agency of technologies and recognising enduring sets of relations that emerge in new digital health practices while avoiding social determinism. The papers in this Special Issue explore diverse fields of healthcare (e.g. reproductive health, primary care, diabetes management, mental health) within which heterogenous technologies (e.g. health apps, mobile platforms, smart textiles, time-lapse imaging) are becoming increasingly embedded. By synthesising the main arguments and contributions in each paper, we elaborate on four key dimensions within which digital technologies create ambivalence and (re)configure health practices. First, promissory digital health highlights contradictory virtues within discourses that configure digital health. Second, (re)configuring knowledge outlines ambivalences of navigating new information environments and handling quantified data. Third, (re)configuring connectivity explores the relationships that evolve through digital networks. Fourth, (re)configuring control explores how new forms of power are inscribed and handled within algorithmic decision-making in health. We argue that these dimensions offer fruitful perspectives along which digital health can be explored across a range of technologies and health practices. We conclude by highlighting applications, methods and dimensions of digital health that require further research.

Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design

Abstract: With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research design, studies seek to detect simultaneous shifts in the environmental and archaeological records, variously positing the former to have influenced, triggered or caused the latter; (2) the question of determinism involves uncertainty about the justification for the above research design in particular in what comes to biologism and the concept of environmental thresholds on the one hand and the externality of the drivers of transformation in human groups and societies on the other; (3) adapting the concepts of the social production of vulnerability and the social basis of hazards from anthropology may help to clarify the available research design choices at hand.