Political Agency

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The didactic goal of the subject is to present and academically discuss the attributes and constitutive features of the phenomenon of political agency in the context of broadly understood social sciences or inquiries in humanities. In this regard, the specificity of the phenomenon of political agency research, diverse in form and content, will be explained against the background of scientific cognition, as well as based on key challenges (problems) occurring both in theoretical-political reflection and in empirical analyses. Therefore, the following topics will be discussed as part of the subject, which will also be the starting point for conducting academic discussion:

1. POLITICAL ANALYSIS – INTRODUCTION – ambiguity of the notion of science; science and knowledge; types of knowledge; types of sciences and their methodological differences; typology of sciences according to Wilhelm Dilthey; consequences of Dilthey's distinction (naturalism vs anti-naturalism); two models of science in political science.

2. THE PROBLEM OF THE SCOPE IN POLITICAL ANALYSIS – principles and goals of methodological individualism; holism directives; the problem of structural conditions: ecological, demographic, economic, political, cultural and their different determination in relation to politics.

3. THE PERSONAL DOMAIN IN EXPLAINING THE WORLD OF POLITICS – the idea of subjective OBE (out-of-body experience); the notion of self-awareness, and self-interest.

4. THE STRUCTURAL DOMAIN IN EXPLAINING THE WORD OF POLITICS – the synchronous (static) and diachronic (dynamic) structure; the duality of structure by Anthony Giddens.

5. SUBJECTIVITY, HISTORIOGRAPHY, AND POLITICS – individual and liberal tradition of the notion of agency, free will and political freedom; the praxeological tradition in explaining the phenomenon of human agency; cause-and-effect chain: activity ↔ action ↔ decision ↔ subjectivity.

6. THE NOTION OF HUMAN AGENCY – philosophical discussions on human agency (subject, psyche, individual agency), citizen subject, and the mutual interaction between individual and/or collective subject and political sphere.

7. HOLISTIC INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN AGENCY – class consciousness; common will and collective intentionality as a source of agency and political subjectivity.

8. THE DUALISM OF AGENCY ↔ STRUCTURE – subjective/individual approach to the political space; objective/structural approach to political space; dialectical thinking of agency-structure.

9. MORPHOGENETIC APPROACH - main assumptions and principles of the morphogenetic theory; morphogenetic models of subjectivity and agency in politics.

10. CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ACTIVISM BASED ON HUMAN AGENCY – academic discussion of selected examples of political activism

Aleksander J. C., Giessen B., Münch R., Smelser N. (ed.), The Micro-Macro Link, University of California Press, Berkley 1987.

Archer M. S., Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995.

Archer M. S., Being Human: the Problem of Agency, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010.

Berger P. L., Luckmann T., The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Penguin Books, New York 1966.

Elder-Vass D., The Causal Power of Social Structures. Emergence, Structure and Agency, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010.

Giddens A., The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Polity Press, Cambridge 1990.

Hay C., Political Analysis. A Critical Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2002.

Karwat M., Pierzchalski F., Tobiasz M. (ed.), Constituents of Political Theory. Selected Articles of Warsaw School of Political Theory, Peter Lang Edition, Frankfurt am Main 2020.

Kmita J., Problems in Historical Epistemology, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht 1988.

Pierzchalski F., Political Leadership in Morphogenetic Perspective, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017.

Pierzchalski F., Political Leadership: Structure – Consciousness – Emotions, Peter Lang, Berlin 2023.

Sztompka P. (ed.), Agency and Structure. Reorienting Social Theory, Routledge, London & New York 2014.

Topolski J., Methodology of History, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht 1976.

Learning Outcomes

WK3, UW1

Knowledge:

Knows and understands:

- basic principles of knowledge transfer to the economic and social sphere as well as commercialization of results of scientific activities and know-how related to these results.

Skills:

Can:

- use knowledge from various fields of science or the field of art to creatively identify, formulate and innovatively solve complex problems or perform research tasks, in particular:

- define the purpose and subject of scientific research, formulate a research hypothesis

- develop research methods, techniques and tools and apply them creatively

- infer on the basis of scientific research results.

Mode of Teaching: classes

Teaching Methods: academic discussion

Assessment Tasks: active participation and class attendance (number of admissible absences - 2)

Learning Outcomes Assessment: Based on a written test.

Assessment criteria: Passing or failing credit based on a written test concerning a set of subject areas covered.