Relational Interdependence Between Social and Individual Agency in Work and Working Life

Abstract

A greater acknowledgment of relational interdependence between individual and social agencies is warranted within conceptions of learning throughout working life. Currently, some accounts of learning tend to overly privilege social agency in the form of situational contributions. This de-emphasises the contributions of the more widely socially sourced, relational and negotiated contributions of both individual and social agency. As these accounts fail to fully acknowledge the accumulated outcomes of interactions between the individual and social experience that shapes human cognition ontogentically and which also acts to remake culture, they remain incomplete and unsatisfactory. In response, this paper proposes a consideration for the role of individual agency (e.g. intentionality, subjectivity and identity), how it is socially shaped over time and serves to be generative of individuals' cognitive experience, and its role in subsequently construing what is experienced socially. This agency also enacts a relational interdependence with social and historical contributions. Through advancing the conception of relational interdependence, this paper aims to balance views that currently privilege particular social influences in conceptions of learning for work and throughout working life.

Understanding work, learning and the remaking of cultural practices

“…The very interactive processes arising will be individually unique in some ways. Individuals may be selective in their reading of a particular social suggestion or simply be unaware of it (Billett, 2005b). So central to the interdependence between social and individual is that it is rendered relational as individuals encounter social experiences projected in multitudinous and diverse forms and construct meaning from ontogenetically diverse bases.…”

“…These affordances or invitational qualities are central to what constitutes a learning environment. Nevertheless, central to this process of learning what constitutes a learning environment is also the degree by which individuals act agentically in the process of constructing knowledge (Billett, 2005b;Billett & Somerville, 2004). This epistemological agency (Smith, 2004) (Bauer, Festner, Gruber, Harteis, & Heid, 2004;Smith, 2004).…”

“…Moreover, more than learning through this process, individuals are actively remaking and potentially transforming their work practices and activities. So not only is there a legacy in terms of ontogenetic development --individuals' development across the lifespan --but also in terms of situated practice, which in turn shapes the cultural practices (Leontyev, 1981), including those comprising paid work (Billett, 2005b;Rogoff, 1990). …”

“…This is because they comprise environments where social structures are enacted, and knowledge that has historical and cultural geneses is manifested and engaged with by individuals, albeit mediated by their unique personal histories. In workplaces there is also a necessary duality in the form of an interdependence between the social and the individual, because each is dependent upon the other for their continuity and development (Billett, 2005b). This interdependence resides in the relationship between the social suggestion and agency manifested in the workplace, in terms of norms, practices and concepts: institutional facts (Searle, 1995), on one hand, and, on the other, individuals' intentions and agency as shaped through their ontogenetic development.…”

Learning by Interest: Experiences and Commitments in Lives with Dance and Crafts

“…The first one refers to the complex nature of learning as interplay between the individual and his/her surroundings, which has attracted the interest of many researchers (e.g. Billett 2006;Stenøien 2003). A theoretical framework that does not view learning as either individual or social is found in Hodkinson et al (2008).…”