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Human Agency (human + agency)
Selected AbstractsHUMAN AGENCY AND THE "JOINTS" OF SOCIAL EXPERIENCE: A COMMENTARY ON WAINRYB, BREHL, AND MATWINMONOGRAPHS OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2005Bryan W. Sokol First page of article [source] Teaching and Learning Guide for: Locutionary, Illocutionary, PerlocutionaryLINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010Mikhail Kissine This guide accompanies the following article: Mikhail Kissine, ,Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary', Language and Linguistics Compass 2/6 (2008) pp. 1189,1202. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00093.x. The terms locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act originate from Austin's classical How to do with words. The corresponding notions, however, prove difficult to define. Yet, lack of careful delineating of each level can lead to important theoretical confusions. This Teaching and Learning Guide explains why proper understanding of Austin's trichotomy is crucial for semantics and pragmatics. Author's Introduction Most contemporary discussions in semantics and pragmatics employ , implicitly or explicitly , some or all of the concepts of locutionary,illocutionary or perlocutionary acts. These notions originate from Austin's posthumous and notoriously intricate book, How to do things with words. The point of interest for the linguist, however, is not so much the exegesis of Austin's ideas, as the precise delimitation of these levels of meaning. First, it is important to characterise the locutionary level , which falls short of any illocutionary force , to avoid contaminating analyses of utterance meanings with matters relative to the illocutionary level, viz. to the speech act performed. Second, the precise definition of illocutionary acts is an extremely difficult matter. However, the first, imperative step must be a clear demarcation between perlocutionary acts , relative to causal effects of the utterances , and the utterance's illocutionary force. Third, to assess theories of illocutionary forces, one must take into account the requirements for psychological and empirical plausibility. For instance, classical Gricean theories of illocutionary force attribution link it with the cognitive capacity to perform complex multi-layered mental state attributions, which is incompatible with the data available on the pragmatic and cognitive functioning of young children. In sum, gaining better understanding of the tripartite distinction between the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary levels is not a taxonomical exercise, but a prerequisite for anyone willing to tackle semantic and/or pragmatic issues with the right tools. Suggested Reading Austin, J.L. (1975) How to do things with words, Second edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Lecture VIII. Difficult reading, but essential to understand Austin's intuitions and the origin of the debate. Strawson, P.F. (1964) "Intention and convention in speech acts", Philosophical Review, 73, 439,60. Classical criticism of Austin's claim abut the conventionality of illocutionary acts and first formulation of a Gricean theory of speech acts. Strawson, P.F. (1973) "Austin and ,Locutionary meaning'", in I. Berlin et al. (eds.) Essays on J.L. Austin, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 46,68. This equally classical paper sheds light onto the difficult notions of rhetic and locutionary acts; it paves the way for using these concepts interchangeably. Recanati, F. (1987) Meaning and Force. The pragmatics of performative utterances, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Chapter 9. This is a lucid discussion and elaboration of Strawson's conception of the locuitonary act as a potential for the illocutionary level. Wilson, D. and Sperber, D. (1988) "Mood and the analysis of non-declarative sentences", in J. Dancy et al. (eds.) Human Agency, Language, Duty and Value. Philosophical essayes in honour of J.O. Urmson, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 77,101. This paper gives important reasons for not confusing the analysis of mood , of the locutionary level , with the analysis of speech acts. Kissine, M. (2009) "Illocutionary forces and what is said", Mind and Language, 24, 122,38. Provides a definition of locutionary acts as linguistic representations of mental states, and lays grounds for a theory of speech acts as reasons to believe or to act. Bach, K. (1994) "Conversational impliciture", Mind and Language, 9, 124,62. An important defence of the distinction between illocutionary and locutionary acts. However, the reader should be warned that Bach conceives of locutionary acts as context-independent propositional radicals, which is not a self-evident position. Alston (2000) Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, Chapter 2. Contains a clear and lucid criticism of theories that confuse illocutionary and perlocutionary levels. Dominicy, M. (2008) "Epideictic rhetoric and the representation of human decision and choice", in K. Korta and J. Garmendia (eds.) Meaning, Intentions, and Argumentation, Stanford, CSLI, 179,207. This paper contains a useful test for distinguishing verbs that describe illocutionary acts form those that describe perlocutionary acts. It is also the first proposal to formulate the illocutionary/perlocutionary divide in Davidsonian terms. Focus Questions 1,What kind of philosophy of action is called for by the distinction between locutions, perlocutions and illocutions? 2,Should the locutionary level be always fully propositional? 3,Can illocutionary acts be characterised in terms of prototypical perlocutional effects? 4,Should illocutionary acts be divided in conventional (institutional) and non-conventional (non-insitutional) ones? 5,Are there good reasons for singling out a locutionary level? 6,,Does the attribution of illocutionary forces presuppose a complex mindreading process? Connexion with to Related Material in Lectures or Discussions 1,The distinction between the locutionary and illocutionary levels is crucial for any discussion about the semantics/pragmatics interface. Many scholars hastily characterise semantics as related to sentence-meaning and pragmatics as concerning the speech act performed. However, one should not take for granted that any level where the meaning is context-dependant is necessarily that of the illocutionary act performed. 2,This distinction can also be relevant for the discussions about the meaning of moods. For instance, the imperative mood is often analysed in terms of the directive illocutionary force. However, there are cases where utterances of imperative sentences do not correspond to a directive speech act. 3,The distinction between perlocutionary and illocutionary acts remains central for any attempt to classify or to define illocutionary forces. 4,Different conceptions of illocutionary acts are important for discussions about the ontogeny and phylogeny of the pragmatic dimension(s) of linguistic competence. [source] Politics, Locality, and Economic Restructuring: California's Central Coast Strawberry Industry in the Post,World War II Period,ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2000Miriam J. Wells Abstract: This article challenges overly economistic, static, and homogenizing representations of contemporary economic restructuring through an in-depth ethnographic case study of the central coast California strawberry industry in the post,World War II period. It demonstrates that restructuring is much more uneven in its incidence and complex in its motivation than usually portrayed, and that politics and human agency are at its core. Because of the place-based nature of certain economic activity and the grounded experience of political process, its explication requires a sensitivity to space and place. [source] The ripple that drowns?ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2008India as economic history, Twentieth-century famines in China The twentieth century saw the virtual elimination of famine across most of the globe, but also witnessed some of the worst famines ever recorded. The causes usually given for these twentieth-century famines differ from those given for earlier famines, which tend to be more often blamed on harvest failures per se than on human agency. This paper reassesses two of the last century's most notorious famines, the Chinese Great Leap Famine of 1959,61 and the Great Bengal Famine of 1943,4, in the light of these rival perspectives. [source] Temperance, alcohol, and the American evangelical: a reassessmentADDICTION, Issue 7 2009Jessica Warner ABSTRACT Abstinence from alcohol is a way of life for many American evangelicals, with rates of abstention running at over 70% among some Pentecostal denominations. This paper examines the religious beliefs that, historically, have supported teetotalism. The most notable of these is Christian perfection, a doctrine that originated in 18th-century England, that was then radicalized in America in the early 19th century. Abstinence from alcohol is highest among denominations that make Christian perfection the cornerstone of their teachings, and lowest among those that discount human agency. The paper also argues that 19th-century American evangelicals were by no means committed uniformly to temperance as a way of life, and that this was especially true of the various Methodist churches. [source] MONEY FLOWS LIKE MERCURY: THE GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL FINANCEGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2005Gordon L Clark ABSTRACT. If the social relations and inherited configuration of production were at the core of economic geography a decade ago, these aspects of the world are increasingly taken for granted. The global scope of industry and corporate strategy has claimed increasing attention over the past decade. And while any ,new' economic geography must have something to say about the nature of human agency and the role of institutions in structuring the landscape, care must be taken not to exaggerate their significance for constructive interaction. In point of fact, the global finance industry is an essential lens through which to study contemporary capitalism from the top-down and the bottom-up. If we are to understand the economic landscape of twenty-first century capitalism, it should be understood through global financial institutions, its social formations and investment practices. This argument is developed by reference to the recent literature on the geography of finance and a metaphor , money flows like mercury , designed to explicate the spatial and temporal logic of global capital flows. Some may dispute this argument, but in doing so they lament the passing of an era rather than advancing a convincing counterclaim about how the world is and what it might become. All this means that we have to rethink the significance of geographical scale and organizational processes as opposed to an unquestioned commitment to localities. [source] CHANNING COPE AND THE MAKING OF A MIRACLE VINE,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2004DEREK H. ALDERMAN ABSTRACT. The history of kudzu illustrates the fluidity with which people can redefine their cultural relationship with exotic species. Although much of American society views the fast-growing Asian vine as a pest, this has not always been the case. During the first half of the twentieth century, individual entrepreneurs and government officials touted kudzu as a "miracle vine" and carried out massive planting campaigns across the southeastern United States. This study traces the changing place of kudzu within southern society from its introduction in the late 1800s to the present. Specific attention is devoted to the role that the gentleman farmer, author, and radio personality Channing Cope played in popularizing the cultivation of kudzu. Cope's promotional activities are interpreted as environmental claims making. Analysis focuses on the metaphors he used in persuading the public of kudzu's supposed benefits. Conducting such an examination advances our general understanding of the historical geography of exotics in America and the importance of human agency and cultural representation in the spread of non-native organisms. [source] Christa Wolf's Kassandra and Medea: Continuity and ChangeGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2004Helen Bridge When Christa Wolf's Medea: Stimmen appeared in 1996, some critics accused the work of being little more than a pale repetition of the earlier Kassandra project. This paper argues that, while broad continuities in Wolf's concerns are obvious, the shift from monologue in Kassandra to a polyphony of voices in Medea is symptomatic of subtle, yet important shifts in her approach to myth and her understanding of history. Although Wolf's archaeological understanding of myth and the problems this raises remain unchanged, the focus has shifted from the effects myth has on the individual to the human needs which give rise to it. The more psychological exploration of myth in Medea reveals interesting shifts in Wolf's understanding of the individual's role in history. In Kassandra, just as we assume that individuals exercise sovereign control over the myths they circulate, so we have the impression that history results from human agency in accordance with the will of those in power. In Medea, Wolf seems more doubtful about the ability of individuals to control events, even those they have caused. The idea of a coherent historical development, albeit a negative one, which is central to the Kassandra project, is absent from the later work. [source] Novel ecosystems: theoretical and management aspects of the new ecological world orderGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2006Richard J. Hobbs ABSTRACT We explore the issues relevant to those types of ecosystems containing new combinations of species that arise through human action, environmental change, and the impacts of the deliberate and inadvertent introduction of species from other regions. Novel ecosystems (also termed ,emerging ecosystems') result when species occur in combinations and relative abundances that have not occurred previously within a given biome. Key characteristics are novelty, in the form of new species combinations and the potential for changes in ecosystem functioning, and human agency, in that these ecosystems are the result of deliberate or inadvertent human action. As more of the Earth becomes transformed by human actions, novel ecosystems increase in importance, but are relatively little studied. Either the degradation or invasion of native or ,wild' ecosystems or the abandonment of intensively managed systems can result in the formation of these novel systems. Important considerations are whether these new systems are persistent and what values they may have. It is likely that it may be very difficult or costly to return such systems to their previous state, and hence consideration needs to be given to developing appropriate management goals and approaches. [source] CHALLENGING CERTAINTY: THE UTILITY AND HISTORY OF COUNTERFACTUALISMHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2010SIMON T. KAYE ABSTRACT Counterfactualism is a useful process for historians as a thought-experiment because it offers grounds to challenge an unfortunate contemporary historical mindset of assumed, deterministic certainty. This article suggests that the methodological value of counterfactualism may be understood in terms of the three categories of common ahistorical errors that it may help to prevent: the assumptions of indispensability, causality, and inevitability. To support this claim, I survey a series of key counterfactual works and reflections on counterfactualism, arguing that the practice of counterfactualism evolved as both cause and product of an evolving popular assumption of the plasticity of history and the importance of human agency within it. For these reasons, counterfactualism is of particular importance both historically and politically. I conclude that it is time for a methodological re-assessment of the uses of such thought-experiments in history, particularly in light of counterfactualism's developmental relatedness to cultural, technological, and analytical modernity. [source] The Second Somatic Revolution1JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2008BRENDA FARNELL ABSTRACT This paper proposes a dynamic theory of embodiment that aims to get beyond the absent moving body in embodied social theory. The first somatic revolution, inspired by Merleau Ponty, provided theories based on the feeling and experience of the body. The theory of dynamic embodiment focuses instead on the doing itself as embodied social action, in which the embodied person is fore-grounded as a complex resource for meaning making. This represents a theoretical enrichment of the earlier turn to the body in social theory, which tended to separate the semiotic, as necessarily representational and/or linguistic, from the somatic as a wide range of corporeal processes and practices assumed to be separated from mind, language and/or conscious thought. We argue that overcoming this persistent Cartesianism requires a New Realist approach to the proper location of human agency as a causal power, one that promotes a bio-psycho-social concept of personhood. Part one of the paper presents a general framework for this perspective, while part two applies this paradigm ethnographically to illustrate how bringing semiosis and somatics together requires a robust conception of multi-sensory modalities. [source] For Bourdieu, Against Alexander: Reality and ReductionJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2000Garry Potter Jeffrey Alexander argues that despite Bourdieu's considerable achievements ultimately his work is reductionist and determinist. He further argues that though Bourdieu is a middle range theorist he is implicitly realist in his meta-theoretical assumptions. This article accepts these conclusions but argues that Bourdieu's meta-theoretical realism is a virtue rather than a vice and that the manner in which he is a reductionist and determinist necessitate a re-thinking of what is meant by these notions. Alexander uses Bourdieu's concept of habitus to demon-strate a fundamental contradiction in Bourdieu's theorising. According to him habitus presents us with the oxymoron of unconscious strategisation. This article uses a discussion of habitus in order to demonstrate that in its relationship with the concept of field it instead produces a practical resolution of long standing theoretical problems concerning structural determination and human agency. It is also argued that these problems are resolved at the meta-theoretical level in the form of critical realist ontology and that it is Alexander's misunderstandings on this level which cause him to fail to appreciate the significance of Bourdieu's achievements. [source] Relative Importance of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Anthropic Factors in the Geomorphic Zonation of the Trinity River, Texas,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 4 2010Jonathan D. Phillips Phillips, Jonathan D., 2010. Relative Importance of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Anthropic Factors in the Geomorphic Zonation of the Trinity River, Texas. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 807-823. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00457.x Abstract:, The Trinity River, Texas, was characterized according to its geologic framework, valley width and confinement, slope, sinuosity, channel-floodplain connectivity, and flow regime, leading to the identification of 18 hinge points along the 638 km study area where major transitions in two or more criteria occur. These, and effects of human agency, avulsions, and sea level rise, delineate 21 river styles or zones. Each zone was evaluated with respect to dominant factors determining its geomorphological characteristics: geology/lithology, tectonics, Holocene sea level rise, meandering, cutoffs and other lateral channel changes, avulsions, valley constrictions by alluvial terraces, and paleomeander depressions. Direct human influences (a large impoundment and water withdrawals) are also evident. Entropy of the relationships between these controls and the geomorphological zones shows that all the controls are significant, and each accounts for 4-15% of the total entropy. Geologic controls, lateral channel changes, and constriction by terraces are the three most influential controls, illustrating that controls on river morphology include extrinsic boundary conditions, active process-form interrelationships, and inherited features. Extrinsic and intrinsic controls each account for about a third of the entropy, but the latter includes antecedent features as well as active channel dynamics, underscoring the importance of historical contingency even in alluvial rivers. [source] Structure, Agency and Power in Political Analysis: Beyond Contextualised Self-InterpretationsPOLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Jason Glynos This article evaluates Mark Bevir and Rod Rhodes' interpretive approach to political analysis by examining their account of social change. Their work is significant because they have endeavoured to construct a distinctive approach which strikes a productive balance between philosophical reflection and analytical attention to the empirical domain. Moreover, in elaborating their approach, Bevir and Rhodes wage a war along a number of fronts: positivism, institutionalism and post-structuralism, and so an analysis of their work enables us to take stock of a range of contemporary methods and approaches. In considering their underlying presuppositions and commitments, we pay particular attention to their account of human agency and its relationship to social structures and political power. While we agree with much of their critique of positivism, naturalism, realism and institutionalism, we argue that Bevir and Rhodes risk overplaying the role of interpreting the individual beliefs and desires of relevant actors to the detriment of a wider net of social practices and logics. Moreover, in challenging their understanding of the post-structuralist approach to political analysis we develop its resources to enrich the possibilities of a critical interpretivism, moving beyond concepts like tradition, dilemma and situated agency. Put more precisely, we argue that the radical contingency of social structures and human agency , their structural incompleteness , discloses new ways of understanding both their character and their mutual intertwining. For example, we develop the categories of lack, dislocation and political identification to think human agency and its relation to wider social structures. More broadly, we argue that an approach developed around different sorts of logics , social, political and fantasmatic , goes some way to steering a different course between a pure thick descriptivism that focuses principally on individual beliefs and desires on the one hand, and a concern with causal laws and mechanisms on the other. [source] The fractal yam: botanical imagery and human agency in the TrobriandsTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 4 2009Mark S. Mosko Anthropologists have long appreciated that animals are ,good to think'. In this essay I ponder whether plants might be good to think too, and particularly whether there is any sense in asking if plants (along with animals) might also be ,good to act'. The botanical metaphor of ,base', ,body', and ,tip' animates the origin structures of many if not most societies of the Austronesian world. Less attention has been directed at indigenous elaborations in other socio-cultural domains of the region. Based on recent fieldwork, I outline such ramifications in Trobriand culture, drawing upon the notions of fractal recursion and self-similarity from chaos theory wherein emergent ,tips' yield ,fruit' which become the condition or ,base' for further production and transformation. Accordingly, the base-body-tip-fruit metaphor serves as a cultural template or scenario for social action, shedding new interpretative light on many topics of long-standing anthropological interest (e.g. yam propagation, display, and exchange, kula, mortuary celebration, age categories, fame) as well as more recent theoretical interests. Résumé Les anthropologues ont compris il y a longtemps déjà que les animaux sont « bons à penser ». Dans cet essai, l'auteur se demande si les plantes sont elles aussi bonnes à penser, et en particulier s'il vaut la peine de se demander si les plantes (comme les animaux) pourraient être « bonnes à agir ». La métaphore botanique de « base », « corps » et « tête » anime les structures originelles de beaucoup de sociétés du monde austronésien, sinon toutes. On s'est moins intéressé aux élaborations indigènes de la région dans d'autres domaines socioculturels. Sur la base d'un récent travail de terrain, l'auteur retrace ces ramifications dans la culture trobriandaise, utilisant les notions de récursivité fractale et d'autosimilitude de la théorie du chaos, selon lesquelles les « têtes » donnent des « fruits » qui deviennent la condition ou « base » d'une nouvelle production et transformation. En conséquence, la métaphore base-corps-tête-fruit sert de modèle culturel ou de scénario d'action sociale, jetant un nouvel éclairage interprétatif sur de nombreux sujets qui intéressent depuis longtemps les anthropologues (tels que la propagation, la présentation et l'échange des ignames, la kula, les célébrations mortuaires, les classes d'âge, la renommée), mais aussi sur de nouvelles questions théoriques plus récentes. [source] Getting out of the habitus: an alternative model of dynamically embodied social actionTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2000Brenda Farnell Although Bourdieu's theory of practice has drawn widespread attention to the role of the body and space in social life, the concept of habitus is problematic as an explanatory account of dynamic embodiment because it lacks an adequate conception of the nature and location of human agency. An alternative model is presented which locates agency in the causal powers and capacities of embodied persons to engage in dialogic, signifying acts. Grounded in a non-Cartesian concept of person and ,new realist', post-positivist philosophy of science, vocal signs and action signs, not the dispositions of a habitus, become the means by which humans exercise agency in dynamically embodied practices. Ethnographic data from the communicative practices of the Nakota (Assiniboine) people of northern Montana (USA) support and illustrate the theoretical argument. [source] Collapse as Cultural Revolution: Power and Identity in the Tiwanaku to Pacajes TransitionARCHEOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, Issue 1 2004John Wayne Janusek Inherent foundations of power are often made explicit in state collapse and ethnogenesis, among the most problematic processes tackled by archaeologists. Recent research on collapse globally indicates that conventional models prioritizing external change (e.g., environmental shift, immigration) fail to address the historical intricacies of and human agency involved in state fragmentation. Some recent models treat collapse as a sudden drop in political complexity, and most fail to elaborate how state collapse influenced postcollapse sociopolitical and cultural patterns. Synthesizing substantial recent research on Tiwanaku (A.D. 500,1150) and post-Tiwanaku Pacajes (A.D. 1150,1450) polities in the south-central Andes, I suggest that state collapse involved a fateful conjunction of sociopolitical and environmental transformations. Drought conditions descended upon a centralized yet highly fragile sociopolitical landscape that had become increasingly volatile during Tiwanaku's apogee. Collapse involved rapid transformation as well as slow, cumulative shifts and enduring continuities. It was a cultural revolution that began during Tiwanaku hegemony and drew heavily on existing practices and ideals. Grounded in practice theory, this case study finds human agency squarely in the center of macroprocesses such as collapse and situates Andean foundations of power in the matrix of local ideals, practices, and identities from which hegemonic regimes such as Tiwanaku were forged. [source] Agentic Orientation as Magical VoluntarismCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 1 2010Joshua Gunn In this essay we argue that the rhetoric of Foss, Waters, and Armada's recent work on "agentic orientation," as well as the rhetoric of the popular bestselling DVD and book The Secret, are typical of "magical voluntarism." Magical voluntarism is an idealist understanding of human agency in which a subject can fulfill her needs and desires by simple wish-fulfillment and the manipulation of symbols, irrelevant of structural constraint or material limitation. Embracing magical voluntarism, we argue, leads to narcissistic complacency, regressive infantilism, and elitist arrogance. A more materialist and dialectical understanding of agency is better. [source] | |||||||||||||