Environmental Engineering Reference
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They go further to identify three different dimensions or elements of human social
agency:
the iterational element : the selective reactivation by actors of past patterns of
thought and action, routinely incorporated in practical activity, thereby giving
stability and order to social universes and helping to sustain identities, interactions,
and institutions over time;
the projective element : the imaginative generation by actors of possible future
trajectories of action, in which received structures of thought and action may be
creatively reconfigured in relation to actors' hopes, fears, and desires for the future;
the practical-evaluative element : the capacity of actors to make practical and
normative judgements among alternative possible trajectories of action, in response
to the emerging demands, dilemmas, and ambiguities of presently evolving
situations.
(1998: 971)
The psychologist Rom Harre (1984) writes of people achieving agency through
their intentions, their knowledge of social rules and their facility for 'activation',
which he explains by suggesting there is within us an inner capacity to act or not
to act. We tend to obey our own inner commands, just as we may obey those of
others, particularly if influenced by the status or credibility of people we respect or
perhaps fear, but Harre notes there is a difference between being stimulated to act
and having a constraint removed, thereby enabling action to occur. Sometimes a
critical incident, a significant learning experience or a disorientating dilemma, such
as a major change in one's life, may lead to a change of values, attitudes and
predispositions. This may constitute either a release or a stimulus. Agency is there-
fore a fairly complex concept that can be understood not only sociologically and
psychologically but ecologically too. Thus, an 'ecology of agency' can be said to be
referring to an understanding which always encompasses an actors-in-transaction-
with-context - that is, people always acting by-means-of-an-environment rather than
simply in an environment (Costall, 2000). Agency is therefore not really a possession
of an individual, but something that is achieved in and through the engagement with
a particular time, place and set of social relations situation. This means that an
individual can be 'agentic' in one situation but not in another. Agency also has a
lot to do with learning, experience and reflection.
The educational psychologist Jack Mezirow (1991) writes about transformative
learning whereby our meaning schemes (specific attitudes, beliefs and attitudes) and
meaning perspectives (criteria for evaluating right and wrong, good and bad) may
alter as a result of experience and self-reflection. Perspective transformation is the
process whereby people become critically aware of how and why their assumptions
constrain the way they perceive, understand and feel about the world. It may involve
the transformation of habitual expectations, enabling a more inclusive or integrative
perspective on the world together with an enhanced capability of deciding how to
act. Perspective transformation can occur slowly, through gradual changes in attitudes
and beliefs, or through a shattering experience that may be highly personal or be
prompted by an eye-opening discussion, film, book or article that seriously contradicts
previously held assumptions. These changes often involve a questioning of beliefs,
 
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