Collective Agency, Non-Human Causality and Environmental Social Movements

Abstract

This article explores the implications for social movement theory of recent work in the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) that explicitly rejects dualisms between society and nature, structure and agency, and macro and micro-levels of analysis. In doing so it argues that SSK offers: (1) a theoretically useful definition of collective agency as an achievement of interaction; that is (2) sensitive to the influence of both humans and non-humans in the networks of the social; and (3) provides practical conceptual tools with which to analyse dynamics of power and agency in the ordering of networks. Applying this framework to a case study of the Australian ‘landcare movement’ it is argued that a range of practices have been used to enact ‘action at a distance’ over Australian farmers and to ‘order’ agricultural practices in ways that are consistent with corporate interests while minimizing opposition from conservation organizations otherwise highly critical of chemical agriculture.