Agency (philosophy)

About: Agency (philosophy) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10461 publications have been published within this topic receiving 350831 citations. The topic is also known as: Thought & Human agency.

Relaunching migration systems

Abstract: The concept of the migration system, first popularized in the 1970s, has remained a staple component of any review of migration theory. Since then, it has been cast somewhat adrift from its conceptual moorings; today in the literature migration systems are generally either conflated with migrant networks or elevated to the heights of macro-level abstraction which divorces them from any empirical basis. At the same time, by taking on board more sophisticated notions of agency, emergence, and social mechanisms, the broader concept of the social system has moved on from the rather discredited structural−functionalist marina where it was first launched. In recent years, having been rejected by many social theorists, the social system has been subject to major reconstruction prior to its relaunch as a respectable and valuable area of social enquiry. This article argues that, for the most part, these developments in systems theory have been ignored by those applying the concept of systems to the analysis of migration. It addresses the question of how the concept of the migration system can be reformulated in the light of these theoretical advances and what implications this may have for our research and analysis.

Telling Tales Out of School: Modernist, Critical, and Postmodern “True Stories” about Educational Computing:

Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the discourses of educational computing in terms of modernist, critical, and postmodernist narratives which attempt to tell “true stories” of how and why new technologies are to be harnessed in the service of educational ends, and about the prospects and pitfalls therein. The authors argue that it is principally the interpretive constraints imposed by these stories, and only secondarily the material capacities and constraints of the technology itself, which differently construct possibilities for pedagogic relations amongst students, teachers, and educational technologies. The authors conclude with an argument for (a) an “ethics of narration” in the weaving of tales with the focus squarely on the possibilities for agency and equity as these are enabled and constrained within particular emplotments and (b) seeking out typically untold and suppressed accounts in determining which tales told about educational computing are most likely to produce and to enable liberatory o...

Neoliberalism and popular women’s culture: Rethinking choice, freedom and agency

Abstract: ‘Choice’, ‘freedom’ and ‘agency’ are terms liberally appropriated in recent years by popular women’s cultural genres to advance an image of the new, empowered woman confidently embracing patriarchal heterosexuality and commodity culture. Critics such as Rosalind Gill have linked this image to the influence of contemporary neoliberalism. This article extends these claims in order to argue that with the rise of this new female subject that reflects the workings of the neoliberal process of subjectification as immanent within and responsive to normative power, a more detailed examination is necessary of the changed meanings of choice and freedom. In the light of this changed form of governance and subjectification, feminist critique of popular women’s culture needs to readjust its terms of engagement.

Theorizing power in transition studies: the role of creativity and novel practices in structural change

Abstract: An important theoretical challenge for theorizing about power dynamics in societal transitions is the transformation of power itself. In this respect, it is especially puzzling how agency at the level of novel practices can extend beyond the habitual, how it can draw on structures and destructure at the same time and in doing so, how it might emerge both as a creative and a destructive force. This article addresses this puzzle by scrutinizing and refining multi-level conceptions of power in the field of transitions studies. In the first part, it explores one specific multi-level framework by Grin and Van Tatenhove in a longitudinal case study of wind energy projects in Denmark and establishes that it has four conceptual short-comings—relating to (1) temporality; (2) relationality; (3) materiality; and (4) creativity—that this article claims to overcome in the second part. In order to so, it draws on several practice theories for an extended framework that enables the unpacking of the interplay between creativity and transition processes.

Collective Action Theory and the Dynamics of Complex Societies

Abstract: Collective action theory, as formulated in the social sciences, posits rational social actors who regularly assess the actions of others to inform their own decisions to cooperate. In anthropological archaeology, collective action theory is now being used to investigate the dynamics of large-scale polities of the past. Building on the work of Margaret Levi, collective action theorists argue that the more principals (rulers) depended on the populace for labor, tribute, or other revenues, the greater the agency (or “voice”) a population had in negotiating public benefits. In this review, we evaluate collective action theory, situating it in relation to existing theoretical approaches that address cooperation, consensus building, and nonelite agency in the past. We draw specific attention to the importance of analyzing agency at multiple scales as well as how institutions articulate shared interests and order sociopolitical and economic interaction. Finally, we argue for a new synthesis of political economy ...