on agency & what it gives us
Positive Friction encourages an alternative design practice in order to restore human agency within online spaces
DVTK • Positive Friction
The future depicted here is one where European citizens reclaim agency through introspection. As prevailing narratives of perpetual economic growth and technological fixes falter, more and more individuals believe that changing the world begins with personal transformation.
INWARDS - N O R M A L S
agency through introspection at a community level — what does this narrative look like through a post-individual lens, but still leveraging introspection and inside-out thinking
“That feeling of helplessness comes out of the fact that all our agency is being channeled through these media,” he said. “We have these events that are ponderously large, like climate change or gun control, and to view them only through the lens of what happened or the abstraction of what people are saying strips away the notion of our agency and... See more
Charlie Warzel • How The Internet Is Like A Dying Star
Affective Foresight begins with the acknowledgement that futures thinking benefits the human emotional state, seeks to understand emotional nuance of the future, and promotes the benefits of foresight as a tool for improved mental health and decision making
Seth T. Harrell • Affective Foresight
In ordinary language, we frequently speak of machinery or ideas ‘doing’ things in our lives. But they do nothing. People – human persons – produce, operate and apply their creations. The problem with assigning agency, even informally, to the nonhuman is that this disguises the strength of human control, limited though it is in other respects. It... See more
Bennett Gilbert • On hope, philosophical personalism and Martin Luther King Jr | Aeon Essays
in a country where childcare costs over £7,000 a year, for just a part-time nursery place. It’s little wonder that we have turned to frivolous spending on a micro level (termed ‘treat brain’) we can afford. So, yes, that means our bottomless brunches and trips to Ibiza and online shopping binges. Let us blow what we can, on what we can.
marie-claire chappet • ‘What’s the point?’ syndrome, and why we all feel so disconnected right now
• Use your imagination as a way to practice exploring possibilities…and discover the many ways this is connected to real-world hope.
Morgan Harper Nichols • A Necessary Imagination
"[Swaraj] is loosely defined as self-rule but it actually goes much deeper," says Kothari, who has written extensively on Swaraj and the ecological crisis. "It means my own autonomy, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, my independence, both as an individual and as a community. But it's not the American notion of individualism that I can do what I
... See moreCreative Destruction • Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #39
“Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice. It points us toward a way of life that enriches rather than depletes our world.”