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Information Systems Research Forum
The Doing of Things: Reconsidering the Question of Technical Agency
Lucas Introna
Lancaster University
Thursday 12 October 2006
12.00 - 1.30 p.m
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Fifth Floor, Tower One
Discuss this video on the ISIG discussion blog
The question of agency is a central concern in sociology and, more specifically, in the social study of technology. The agency/structure debate, as exemplified in the work of Giddens, is indicative of attempts in social theory to account for agency as a social phenomenon. Traditionally the question of agency is accounted for through notions of purposiveness, intentionality and causality—i.e. the idea of some directed intention or force to effect change in a situation. When such a notion of agency is used to think through the agency of technology (or technical artefacts) all sorts of questions emerge. For example, to what degree can the technology ‘force’ the user to do something? What about the intentions of the users? What about the variety of ways that users can interpret the artefact? What about unintended consequences never anticipated by the designers? Where is the agency ‘located’: is it in the artefact, in the user or in both?
These are all very good questions. However, I would argue that these questions take for granted a more primordial, yet simultaneously present, form of agency, which I will call constitutive agency. I will attempt to give an account of constitutive agency by drawing on the work of Heidegger and illustrating it through the discussion of our relationship with relatively simple technical artefacts. I will also attempt to relate this notion of constitutive agency with discussions of agency in the work of Latour (especially as expressed in his book “Reassembling the Social”) and the work of the practice theorist Schatzki (especially with respect to his book “The Site of the Social”).
Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.
For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Maha Shaikh, Research Coordinator. ^
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