Abstract
Despite significant progress in real-world (nonideal) political philosophy focused on overcoming injustice and inequality, there has not been concomitant attention paid to who will take up these projects. Agents tend to be treated in this literature, if at all, as epiphenomenal to substantive normative theorising on social change. To rectify this, Ben Laurence has made perhaps the most systematic case so far for philosophers to identify agents of change as an integral part of their work, with sensitivity to levels of motivation and feasibility. However, his account risks mirroring the status quo biases of an unjust world. Normative theory must retain a commitment to the possibilities for generating potential agents of change in the face of injustice. In response, I propose an approach that is at once universal and pluralistic, grounded in the complexity of agents as they are and yet morally ambitious about what they can become. This incorporates three neglected aspects of change-making agency. First, the ordinary person as a citizen. Second, the ‘black box’ of group agents and how individual agency operates inside structures such as states, firms, or civil society. Third, the indiscernible contributions in the build-up to rapid, visible change. I call these neglected forms of change-making agency, respectively, ‘agency from below’, ‘agency inside agents’, and ‘concealed agency’. Together, they comprise the building blocks for a new theory of agency.
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Notes
Following Wolff (2019a, p. 3), I prefer the terminology of ‘real-world political philosophy’ over ‘nonideal theory’, although I use the terms interchangeably.
Onora O’Neill (2001) helpfully called out this general weakness in the contemporary theoretical discourse on justice.
Laurence (2021) pursues this argument within a wider theoretical project to develop a unified theory of utopian justice and the practical response to injustice.
For an excellent discussion of recent debates on victims’ duties to resist their own oppression, see Vasanthakumar (2020).
I am grateful to an anonymous review for pushing me to consider this aspect of the literature.
The contrast between ‘responsibility’ and ‘commitment’ in thinking about agents of justice is drawn by Hickey et al. (2021).
I am grateful for an anonymous reviewer for pressing me on this point.
On new workplace practices of knowledge-based firms, see Unger (2019).
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for encouraging me to consider how my argument relates to Aytac’s.
Of course, there is a considerable literature on injustices inside organisations, but here I am specifically interested in how internal organisational dynamics shape wider patterns of social change.
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for drawing my attention to this work.
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for raising this challenge.
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for making the connection to Barrett’s approach.
I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for drawing my attention to the relevance of Raekstad’s work on prefigurative politics.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Collis Tahzib and Jonathan Wolff for their helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper, as well as to two anonymous reviewers. I am also grateful to Cécile Laborde for her encouragement in pursuing this subject of inquiry.
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Support for doctoral research drawn on in this article was provided by the General Sir John Monash Foundation.
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Ghazavi, V. Pluralising (Not Limiting) the Agent of Change: A Task for Real-World Political Philosophy. Res Publica 29, 445–467 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-023-09588-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-023-09588-1