Agency

[ˈeɪ·dʒən·si]

Related terms: Action, Actor, Becoming-with, Models, Responsability, Terraformers, We

Agency characterizes a mode of exerting power or producing an effect – a mode that was thought to be a purely human quality. Entangled in multiple processes of interrelationships, the power exerted by other entities (»agents«) acts upon us, similarly to the effects that are produced by us. Glaciers retract, aridity creeps into fertile lands, oceans wash away shorelines, and we are confronted with the dependencies that modern humans have learned to avoid.