Agency and Subjectivity: 

An Inquiry through Poststructuralism

"Agency and Subjectivity: An Inquiry through Poststructuralism" (APOS) is an 18 month research project (April 2021-September 2022) headed by Gavin Rae and financed by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Banco Santander (PR108/20-26). Its basic objective is to engage with and demonstrate that the criticisms that have been levelled against poststructuralist accounts of the subject are based on a fundamental misunderstanding regarding the poststructuralist project, the critique of the foundational subject offered, and the fate of the subject subsequent to that critique. From this, APOS will show that there is a conception of agency inherent to the poststructuralist approach that has been long ignored, one that not only offers a number of significant advantages over other conceptions of agency but also demonstrates that a socially-constituted, embodied subject is capable of agential action to determine and effect its constituting ground. The aim is to develop our understanding of poststructuralism, challenge the ontological assumptions that govern much of the Western world’s contemporary social discourse, and recuperate a socially-embedded and embodied notion of subjective agency.