Some people view the world as one in which everything is the result of individual agency; others view it s an agglomeration of systemic forces. Who is more right?
I take a systems approach, but that doesn’t mean I think we don’t have agency within those systems. For example, if an individual decides to become vegan and never buy another new consumer good because they are environmentally conscious, that’s great. But if the system decides to make meat really expensive, outlaw plastics, and subsidize a resale market, people won’t eat as much meat, use as much plastic, or buy as many new things, and that will have a much greater effect.
We can encourage people to take certain actions, and they have some agency with regards to whether or not they do. But more often than not the systemic forces have a much greater effect
I take a systems approach, but that doesn’t mean I think we don’t have agency within those systems. For example, if an individual decides to become vegan and never buy another new consumer good because they are environmentally conscious, that’s great. But if the system decides to make meat really expensive, outlaw plastics, and subsidize a resale market, people won’t eat as much meat, use as much plastic, or buy as many new things, and that will have a much greater effect.
es exactly.
We can encourage people to take certain actions, and they have some agency with regards to whether or not they do. But more often than not the systemic forces have a much greater effect