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This chapter presents the Layered Model of Agency as a semiotic framework for studying agentive variations in both individual and joint actions. Collective agency is understood as an enhanced capability for action that incorporates artifacts in constituting sociotechnical systems. Building on this, I propose a bottom-up view of agency that recognizes individuals as agents of systemic change and emphasizes their crucial role in collective agency. Consequently, I underscore the importance of examining the interactions between individual and collective agency, proposing the Layered Model of Agency as a relevant tool for investigating these issues.
This chapter presents the Layered Model of Agency as a semiotic framework for studying agentive variations in both individual and joint actions. Collective agency is understood as an enhanced capability for action that incorporates artifacts in constituting sociotechnical systems. Building on this, I propose a bottom-up view of agency that recognizes individuals as agents of systemic change and emphasizes their crucial role in collective agency. Consequently, I underscore the importance of examining the interactions between individual and collective agency, proposing the Layered Model of Agency as a relevant tool for investigating these issues.
English version available here: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/2jxue_v2
This study investigates the effects of prior intentions and intentions in action during the initial stage of a process of design in search of correlations between these cognitive processes and the quality of the design outcomes.
This study investigates the effects of prior intentions and intentions in action during the initial stage of a process of design in search of correlations between these cognitive processes and the quality of the design outcomes.
The incorporation of artifacts to draw raises some fundamental questions: Is the pencil an extension of the mind? Can we think with our hands? What agentive capacities are increased with the use of the pencil? What is the representational status of sketching? Using the notion of enhanced agency, I explore the way in which the pencil improves design capabilities.
The incorporation of artifacts to draw raises some fundamental questions: Is the pencil an extension of the mind? Can we think with our hands? What agentive capacities are increased with the use of the pencil? What is the representational status of sketching? Using the notion of enhanced agency, I explore the way in which the pencil improves design capabilities.
Design from the South is the expression of a new epistemology. An epistemology in which design actions are oriented to social transformation in search of social equity and sustainability, paving the way to design justice. This article presents examples of the way in which this epistemology of design sprouts from the community itself.
Design from the South is the expression of a new epistemology. An epistemology in which design actions are oriented to social transformation in search of social equity and sustainability, paving the way to design justice. This article presents examples of the way in which this epistemology of design sprouts from the community itself.
This paper was mentioned as a highly praised article by reviewers at the Design Research Society conference 2024.
This paper was mentioned as a highly praised article by reviewers at the Design Research Society conference 2024.
Following the levels of intentionality and semiosis, and the distinction between original agency (without the use of artefacts) and enhanced agency (the prosthetic incorporation of artefacts), we propose a model of an agency hierarchy, consisting of six layers. Using this model, we review and assess recent proposals on the nature of agency from cognitive science and neuroscience.
This thesis investigates the role of artefacts in relation to human agency. It contends that the activity of design is a key feature of human agency, proposing the notion of enhanced agency as the prosthetic incorporation of artefacts into the agentive capabilities of the agents. The thesis rejects human exceptionalism which places humans as ontologically unique and biologically discontinuous with the rest of the living world. At the same time, it recognizes that only human agents have the power to stop the current environmental obliteration.
Many contemporary scholars have recently defended the idea that the agency of things is symmetrical and equivalent to human agency. We propose an alternative approach to artefacts’ agency based on contextually situated observations of the process of design of artefacts in Amazonia. We claim that the relation between artefacts and agents is asymmetrical, proposing the notion of enhanced agency for the prosthetic incorporation of artefacts into the agentive capabilities of human agents.
We propose a stage model for the evolution of design. The stages are individuated based on evidence from archaeology and cognitive science, but also on the particular semiotic resources that are novel for each stage: mimesis-based gestures, speech, drawings, and polysemiotic communication. The model suggests both continuities and relative discontinuities in the evolution of design, and more generally, in human bio-cultural evolution.
The study of the origin(ator) of actions is crucial for a better understanding of situated cognition. The role of artefacts in human actions has to be reconsidered, since artefacts acquire functions by means of designing and they do not act for themselves. This thesis has consequences for our understanding of situated cognition and for the current debate on responsibility of AI technologies, as well as for work analysis and design.
There is much to commend about a non-hierarchical, interdependent relationship between the world and living organisms — and more specifically between material things and human beings. Nevertheless, a balanced review of the notion of “material agency” is still called for. In this review, I show that an asymmetry can be introduced into the relationship between artefacts and human beings without committing the “sin” of anthropocentrism.
Car-sharing systems with electric vehicles are an alternative to reduce commuting times in big cities and also to mitigate air pollution. This document proposes a public car-sharing system for Bogotá. Sharing systems propose the transition from the value of private property to the value of shared property, generating benefits such as: the reduction of negative environmental impact, costs reduction, and increasing the efficiency of human systems. The article focuses on the design and manufacturing of a car concept.
In this chapter, the notion of agency will be presented in order to introduce a new approach to semiotics of design. Unlike traditional semiotic analysis of design, the agentive approach implies focus not on the artefacts themselves, but on acts of production and response between agents, i.e. between designers and users.
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