Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 22:11:11 -0600
From: Pia Kate <piakate-AT-concentric.net>
Subject: Re: Power and the Subject


At 06:50 PM 1/28/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>I don't understand, you said that people's agency is formed by
>norms. How can one will to reshape norms without a free will?
>The fact that I can reject the norm speaks of my free will, a
>will that exists before the norms are imposed on me and is
>capable of liberating itself from them.

You might want to find an intermediate between the absolutes of free will 
and determinism. The time and place and environment shapes what positions 
you CAN take - are the cards you are given. How you play your hand - how 
you use the strategies you can access - is where there is room for agency. 
A very simplistic example is that if you were a black female in North 
Africa a hundred years ago you would be shaped differently/start from a 
different place/have access to different tools than if you are the rich, 
white son of an American President today ... I am shaped by the world I 
live in, but I can also shape the world I live in - to some extent. I 
cannot in one fell swoop reinterpret all of reality - the taxonomy of my 
environment will shape how I (can) interpret that environment and how I 
(can) interpret myself. I live in a reality where gender is a relevant 
difference/distinction, but nose size is not, so when I consider my 
identity I will take a position on gender but probably not on the size of 
my nose. Look at the history of science and list things that were "common 
knowledge" two hundred years ago but are considered silliness now. If you 
lived then no amount of free will would help you construct a reality which 
incorporated present day "knowledge".

Hope that helps you see the dynamic nature of the interplay between 
power/knowledge/agency.

Pia Staunstrup
UT Arlington