Abstract
The term “agency” is used in many different ways. We examine its place in activity theory and suggest some extensions to notions of agency. The nature of agency is an old and ongoing debate. It has been reintroduced into contemporary social theory by actor-network theory (Latour, 1993; Law and Callon, 1992; see Kaptelinin and Nardi, 2006). We will suggest that different kinds of entities can exhibit different kinds of agency depending on circumstances. In other words, agency is not a simple property of a subject or thing. It is an important concept for HCI and activity theory because of the principle of mediation. Entities mediate according to the kinds of agency they are capable of.
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© 2012 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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Kaptelinin, V., Nardi, B. (2012). Agency. In: Activity Theory in HCI. Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02196-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02196-1_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-01068-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-02196-1
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