Topic
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.
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TL;DR: A review of three contemporary approaches to the study of the past can be found in this paper, namely, Neo-Darwinism, cognitive-processualism, and cognitive processualism.
Abstract: A new paradigm is emerging in archaeology herein dubbed ‘historical processualism’. A review of three contemporary approaches to the study of the past – neo-Darwinism, cognitive-processualism, and ...
230 citations
Book•
24 Jun 1994TL;DR: In the Phenomenology of Spirit as discussed by the authors, the claims to self-sufficient knowledge: sense-certainty, perception, understanding, freedom, self-consciousness, and self-reflection.
Abstract: 1. Why the Phenomenology of Spirit? 2. The claims to self-sufficient knowledge: sense-certainty, perception, understanding 3. The claims of self-sufficient agency: freedom and self-consciousness 4. Modern life's project of self-justification 5. Modern life's alternatives and modern life's possibilities 6. The self-reflection of the human community 7. The essential structure of modern life.
230 citations
TL;DR: Barad as discussed by the authors explores the perspectives of Foucault's notion of government by linking it to the debate on the 'new materialism' and proposes a conceptual proposal of a 'government of things' which takes into account the interrelatedness and entanglement of men and 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...
230 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer-term sustainability, shifting away from the top-down "one-size-fits-all" approach to allow "voices from below" to be heard and heeded.
Abstract: This paper argues that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer-term sustainability, shifting away from the top-down ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to allow ‘voices from below’ to be heard and heeded. It critiques dominant interpretations of key transitional justice concepts, and links them to the difficulties of post-conflict transitional justice in a range of violently divided societies. Popular participation and local agency, it is argued, is necessary to achieve ends identified in much transitional justice discourse, and to embed mechanisms for the creation of sustainable peace. A Northern Ireland initiative (the Ardoyne Commemoration Project) will be explored in-depth, illustrating how a bottom-up ‘truth-telling’ process can make a significant contribution to transitional justice and casting doubt on the validity of the deference to legal dominance in current policy and practice. The paper recommends that knowledge available in development studies and participatory theory be applied more clearly in debates and approaches in transitional justice.
229 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the way that critical discourse is written by considering the concept of nominalization and finds that the language used by critical analysts, as they explore nominalization, is revealing, and they tend to use, and thereby instantiate, the very forms of language whose ideological potentiality they are warning against.
Abstract: This article examines the way that critical discourse is written. It does so by considering the concept of nominalization. Critical discourse analysts have suggested that nominalization (along with passivization) has important ideological functions such as deleting agency and reifying processes. However, the language used by critical analysts, as they explore nominalization, is revealing. They tend to use, and thereby instantiate, the very forms of language whose ideological potentiality they are warning against — such as deleting agency, using passives and turning processes into entities. The concept of 'nominalization' is itself a nominalization; it is typically used in imprecise ways that fail to specify underlying processes. If critical analysts take seriously their own ideological warnings about nominalization and passivization, they need to change the standard ways of writing critical analysis. We need to use simpler, less technical prose that clearly ascribes actions to human agents.
228 citations