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.

Lesbian ethics: Beginning remarks

Abstract: While we have questioned patriarchal politics, we have not questioned patriachal ethics. This paper comes from the introduction of my forthcoming book, Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value (Institute of Lesbian Studies, P.O. Box 60242, Palo Alto, CA 94306, U.S.A.), and lays the groundwork for the challenge to patriarchal ethics I pose: I argue that the concept ‘lesbian’ is connected in important ways to the idea of female agency. I suggest the function of traditional ethics is social control and that we might instead focus on the development of individual moral agency and integrity. I discuss the use of language in structuring reality and trapping us in oppression. And finally I discuss the directions my work takes.

Introduction: Reclaiming Feminism: Gender and Neoliberalism

Abstract: Neoliberalism - that 'grab-bag of ideas based on the fundamentalist notion that markets are self-correcting, allocate resources efficiently and serve the public interest well' as Stiglitz (2008) puts it - has been a focal point for contestation in development. Feminists have highlighted its deleterious effects on women's lives and on gender relations. They have drawn attention to the extent to which the institutions promoting neoliberal economic and social policies have undermined a more progressive agenda, as they have come to appropriate words such as 'empowerment' and 'agency' and eviscerate them of any association with a project of progressive social change. This collection of articles brings together reflections from a diversity of locations on prospects for reclaiming these ideas and using them to reframe and revitalise feminist engagement with development. To reclaim feminist concepts like 'agency' and 'empowerment', we argue, we need to return to and reaffirm their 'liberating' dimensions, reaffirming their association with forms of collective action that involve resisting and transgressing repressive social norms.

Illness as moral occasion: restoring agency to ill people

Abstract: While both medical sociology and clinical ethics have tended to ignore the moral dimensions of illness, some ethicists have called attention to how serious illness creates a moral imperative for th...

Beyond embeddedness: economic practices and the invisible dimensions of transnational business activity:

Abstract: Embeddedness remains a central concept in much economic geographical thought for understanding how social factors influence economic activity. Recent commentators have argued for a reconceptualization that entails a relational and processual redefinition of the concept. This paper argues, however, that there remain deep-rooted epistemological problems with embeddedness that are not overcome by this emerging reconceptualization. It argues that the conceptual lexicon of embeddedness conflates economic action and outcomes, insufficiently captures power and agency and produces a limited understanding of the spatialized development of economic activity. It further argues that the language of embeddedness conceals dimensions to transnational business activity that require increasing theoretical attention in order to explain economic success or failure in the context of contemporary globalization. In contrast to those seeking to reconceptualize embeddedness, the paper thus argues for a relational and associational approach centred on tracing the practices that produce economic outcomes in the contemporary global space economy. This alternative approach draws on recent contributions to actor-network theory as well as relational and topological theorizations of the nature of power and knowledge in relation to economic activity. The arguments are grounded with reference to a series of examples drawn from research into the nature of contemporary transnational firms.