Does Agency Come in Levels?

Abstract

I examine whether the concept of agency is usefully described as manifesting at different levels, or if it is more fruitful to speak of kinds and scales of agency. Using the enactive definition of agency, I explore some of the complexities of different agencies that overlap in human bodies: organic, sensorimotor, and sociolinguistic. I argue against a neat ranking of these kinds in terms of ontological hierarchy or priority, as they are all constitutively unfinished processes of mutually influenced becoming. Similar considerations apply when looking at agency at different scales, from cells to ecosystems. By inviting hierarchical thinking, level-talk runs the risk of levelling down a variety of complex phenomena in the diverse ways agency is manifested in living, ecological, and social systems.

Keywords: enaction; agency defined; autonomy; varieties of agency; scales; entanglement