All things act /
"This book explores the collective character of action to expand the ways we think about agency. First, it resists viewing agency as a capacity, much less one exclusive to humans. Instead, it defines agency as an umbrella term for the concrete sociomaterial processes that emerge from the collab...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2025]
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "This book explores the collective character of action to expand the ways we think about agency. First, it resists viewing agency as a capacity, much less one exclusive to humans. Instead, it defines agency as an umbrella term for the concrete sociomaterial processes that emerge from the collaborative efforts of multiple entities acting together. Agency isn't the faculty of an individual entity or self; it's always the function of a network or assembly of actors. Second, many of the actors involved in these processes are nonhuman-things without intentions, will, or even awareness. This relational and collective approach adopts a conception of action that doesn't hinge on mental states. To act is to participate in, contribute to, shape, facilitate, organize, constrain, and modify the course of events. This book argues that there's no such thing as an individual action and that agency is collectively distributed across a heterogeneous field of human and nonhuman actors"-- Provided by publisher. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (unpaged) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197812198 0197812198 9780197812211 019781221X 9780197812204 0197812201 |