Agency without actors? : new approaches to collective action / edited by Jan-Hendrik Passoth, Birgit Peuker and Michael Schillmeier.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Passoth, Jan-Hendrik.

Peuker, Birgit Maria.

Schillmeier, Michael W. J.

Series:

Routledge advances in sociology ; 58.

Routledge advances in sociology ; 58

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agent (Philosophy).

Act (Philosophy).

Events (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

xiv, 217 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2012.

Summary:

"Agency without Actors? New Approaches to collective Action is rethinking a key issue in social theory and research: the question of agency. The history of sociological thought is deeply intertwined with the discourse of human agency as an effect of social relations. In most recent discussions the role of non-humans gains a substantial impact. Consequently the book asks: Are nonhumans active, do they have agency? And if so: how and in what different ways? The volume offers a critical state-of-the-art debate of internationally and nationally leading scholars within Sociology, Social Anthropology and STS on agency (Latour, Law, Michael, Rammert etc.). It fosters the productive exchange of empirical settings and theoretical views by outlining a wide range of novel accounts that link human and non-human agency. It tries to understand social-technical, political and environmental networks as different forms of agency that produce discrete and identifiable entities like humans, animals, technical artifacts. It also asks how different types of (often conflicting) agency and agents actors are distinguished in practice, how they are maintained and how they interfere with each other"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Introduction / Jan-Hendrik Passoth Passoth, Jan-Hendrik, Birgit Peuker Peuker, Birgit, Michael Schillmeier Schillmeier, Michael 1

Part I Events, suggestions, accounts 13

2 Suggestion and satisfaction. On the actual occasion of agency / Paul Stronge Stronge, Paul, Mike Michael Michael, Mike 15

3 Science, cosmopolitics and the question of agency Kant's critique and Stengers' event / Michael Schillmeier Schillmeier, Michael 31

4 Questioning the human/non-human distinction / Florence Rudolf Rudolf, Florence 54

5 Agency and "worlds" of accounts. Erasing the trace or rephrasing the action? / Rolland Munro Munro, Rolland 61

Part II Contribution, distribution, failures 87

6 Distributed agency and advanced technology. Or: how to analyze constellations of collective inter-agency / Werner Rammert Rammert, Werner 89

7 Distributed sleeping and breathing. On the agency of means in medical work / Cornelius Schubert Schubert, Cornelius 113

8 Agencies' democracy. "Contribution" as a paradigm to (re)thinking the common in a world of conflict / Jacques Roux Roux, Jacques 130

9 Reality failures / John Law Law, John 146

Part III Interaction, partnership, organization 161

10 "What's the story?" Organizing as a mode of existence / Bruno Latour Latour, Bruno 163

11 Researching water quality with non-humans. An ANT account / Christelle Gramaglia Gramaglia, Christelle, Delaine Sampaio Da Silva Silva, Delaine Sampaio Da 178

12 Horses - significant others, people's companions, and subtle actors / Marion Mangelsdorf Mangelsdorf, Marion 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415603423

0415603420

OCLC:

644681686