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Agency

Social Construction and Relational Action

Kenneth J. Gergen

Swarthmore College, gergen1{at}cc.swarthmore.edu

Fisher's reading of social constructionist and relational theory is unfortunate. In the first instance, he fails to see that constructionism makes no attempt to establish a foundational ontology in which either agency or its absence is declared real or true. The relational alternative to the traditional account of agency as internal origination is not offered as a truth posit but a contribution to societal practice. On this view, agency is not `empirically' available, as Fisher contends, but is a constitutive achievement of relationships. In this light, Fisher's concern with the function of the traditional conception of agency in maintaining the moral order is salutary.

Key Words: agency • relational theory • social construction

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 113-115 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354399091007
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