Sociocultural Affordances and Enactment of Agency: A Transactional View
Presenter: Jarkko Pyysiäinen
Commenter: TBC, Chair: Toni Ruuska
Abstract
The concept of ‘affordances’, originally developed by James J. Gibson, the founding father of ecological psychology, has recently been subject to widespread theoretical interest, across disciplinary boundaries. Gibson originally conceived affordances as action possibilities afforded to an animal (including humans) by the environment where its actions are embedded, and with respect to which the animal was portrayed as actively regulating its behavior. Already Gibson’s original formulations were thus, first, informed by a broadly relational, or mutualist, metatheory and, second, emphasizing the role of agents’ active agency in processes of perception and action. Subsequently, scholars have proposed that broadly relational affordance concepts could also be applied to theorize how aspects of sociocultural environments afford possibilities for action to human agents. This paper argues that if and when attempting to extend the affordance concept to cover action possibilities characteristic of our sociocultural environments, a transactionally informed relational perspective – along the lines formulated by classical pragmatist thinkers (Dewey and Bentley, implicitly also Peirce, Mead) – proves useful. A transactional perspective helps to reveal the intimate conceptual connections between sociocultural affordances (SCAs) and agency: both are crucially about contextually defined goal-directed doings, and about learning to fluently master particular patterns of habits, skills and sociocultural practices in culturally appropriate and socially feasible ways. The paper proceeds, first, by outlining critical issues in the conceptualization of SCAs, second, by illustrating how the concept of SCAs also points towards a transactional conception of agency enactment and, third, how a transactionally informed version of relational metatheory helps to further elaborate on the dynamic complementarity between SCAs and agency enactment.
About the Culture and the Crisis Seminar Series
The contemporary culture can be linked to crisis in many ways. It is claimed to be in crisis; to generate myriad forms of crises; and also, to be a crisis in and of itself. This working seminar series delves into the phenomena of ‘culture’ and ‘crisis’, as well as investigates their interrelations and related manifestations. The aim is to deepen our understanding on the on-going crisis: (a) its description, including the causes, processes, and consequences, and (b) the relevant normative positions.
Each session will comprise of a 30-minute presentation + a 30-minute dialogue with a preselected commenter + a 30-minute discussion with all participants. The talks will be accompanied by full working papers, or extended abstracts at minimum, which will be distributed to all participants one week in advance.
The seminar series is organized by LIMBO in collaboration with the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Department of Economics and Management; and Sustainable Change Research Network (SUCH). Seminars will take place on Viikki Campus, Biokeskus 1, room 3109 (‘Nahkakabinetti’) at 12-14 o’clock. For queries and registration, please contact pasi.heikkurinen@helsinki.fi.