Structure and Agency and the Strategies of Tenants (as Agents) Reconsidered

1. Structure and Agency and the Strategies of Tenants (as Agents) Reconsidered Wendy Olsen Global Poverty Research Group

5. Introduction • My team are a cooperating bunch of people who respect all the kinds of people shown in the photos. • We want to learn from and with them. In doing so, we have conducted interviews, filled in questionnaires, taken case histories and life histories, asked permission using an informed-consent approach, visited repeatedly, mapped the villages, and analysed lots of data.

6. People Involved • Vasudevappa, the shepherd girl, J. Rangaswamy, Wendy Olsen, Davuluri Venkateswarlu, Yashodamma (1994-1996), Bharathi (1994-96 and 2004-7), Daniel Neff, K. Tejo Kiran, D. Akthavala, Bheem Reddy, and many, many others

7. Context • A theoretical dispute between economists who focus on free choice, constrained choice, preferences of individuals, and optimal behaviour . . . Versus • Those Marxist and gender specialists who notice that one’s structural location has a strong influence which constrains one’s behaviour. • My aim is to reconcile agency and structure.

8. Methodology • The research is grounded in village-based enquiry in south India. A number of enquiries have taken place, including funded research in 1994 to 1996, and again further research during 2004 to 2006. • Interviews, questionnaires, and life histories have been studied. • We have digitised recordings and transcripts

9. One agent • the case of Hydamabee illustrates the combination of freedom and constraint that is common among workers. She was free enough to marry a Hindu, creating a mixed-religion household. However they are very constrained by poverty. They have some assets, including two cows. Their vision is to leave agriculture.

10. Examine this complex agent • She is not alone, she is part of her household, her couple, a religious group (Muslims), and her family. • The agent really is the couple for the agricultural tasks which are so important in my study. Furthermore, even for casual labouring, the decision-making unit is this couple. • ‘ really ’ a couple implies that the realist should recognize that this couple is an agent.

11. Components of agency ( for all agents ) • 1. Located-ness ( awareness of our assets and past events and their implications) • 2.Imagination and vision • 3.Feelings and empathy • 4.Being part of larger collectives

12. Ontological tricks • A) A complex account of agency. • B) a clear definition of a strategy as an orientation and a discursive and ethical approach to situation, taken by any agent, responding to feedback flexibly, and aiming at some goal • 2nd-order strategies are strategies about strategies • 3rd-order strategies are representations of the set of strategies. They imply some ethical orientation.

13. Realist foundations • Ethical naturalism • Some ethical principles arise from the reality which we know as nature and human society • they arise because of the reality of goodness • This does not resolve all ethical problems nor offer a clear ethical principles • Moral realism • Good is really good • Knowledge about what is good is much more difficult to achieve

14. The search for good knowledge includes an ethical search for good foundations for achieving knowledge (Here, ‘ethical’ does not mean good, but rather it means recognizing the complexity and multifaceted demands that are made on any agent which tries to be good) - Wolfe, Nussbaum

15. strategies utilise practices • Examples are given in the paper. For example schooling your child is a social practice deciding to school them means taking up a strategy for schooling. The strategy gives us an orientation which disapproves of excessive child labour. We can adapt the strategy as we go along. • The practice of child labour is relevant for decisions about schooling. • The concept of practices allows the debate about meaningful child labour versus exploitative child labour.

16. Second-order strategies • If you reflect on the difficulties with your strategies, you will develop a strategy about the strategies. We found that some tenants were very considerate of their landlords. The strategy reflected an expansion of the agent to include the landlord family. Some landlords too, were kind and caring. This second order strategy widens the agent of farming.

17. The character of the considering agent • 1) reflexivity or reflection • 2) considers a wider scope • 3) considers the needs and interests of a wide range of agents • 4) recognizes the interests of others and of oneself

18. Travelling develops sensitivity • Within Andhra Pradesh, greater differences occur in the meaning of migration and the possibility of migration helping a family to a better life. Practices of migration also differ over space. • Between countries, between religious groups, and even between villages, we have to travel and be ‘open’ in order to develop sensitivity to the ethics of people’s second-order strategies.

19. Going global:third order strategic thinking • When we consider the situation of India, with its partially liberalised economy and its colonial past,we know that it is important to consider agents of all kinds: local, state level, national, and international. • Being considerate is part of being a good agent. Government, for example tries to promote the well-being of its people. • The example of giving land to poor people is used in the paper to illustrate that governance also requires some more characteristics.

20. Characteristics of agents who do third order strategic reasoning • 6) able to plan the management of disputes • 7) aware of their own image and how to do image management • 8) capable of making clear judgements about the scope and range of the ethical content of their strategies

21. Growth of Research on Realism