Determination constrains but does not eliminate individual agency

Evidence

To the extent that the determination of cultural production is even more complexly mediated than are other superstructures such as law or politics, and to the extent that literary and literary-critical production continues to have a far more individualized character than production in, say, public architecture or advertising, the relative autonomy of cultural production in general and of the literary field in particular is obvious enough - as is, concomitantly, the very considerable role of the individual theorist’s agency. ‘Determination’ does not mean, in other words, the kind of entrapment of which structuralists and Foucauldians speak; it refers, rather, to the givenness of the circumstan~e within which individuals make their choices, their lives, their histories. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 38

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘determination’ against the structuralist/Foucauldian reading, as circumstantial givenness rather than entrapment - central to Ahmad’s materialist rebuttal of discourse-determinism.
• XREF: Directly engages Foucault’s Society Must Be Defended and the reader’s theme of whether discourse-first moves are materially evasive. — connects to: Delegated discretionary authority need not reduce freedom when properly constrained — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 31; Economic determination acts by setting limits rather than predicting specific outcomes; Hegemonic systems are neither seamless nor fully determinative of individual agency — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 855 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Economic determination acts by setting limits rather than predicting specific outcomes #expands (0.82)
• Hegemonic systems are neither seamless nor fully determinative of individual agency #qualifies (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 855
• Delegated discretionary authority need not reduce freedom when properly constrained #qualifies (0.78) — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 31
• Social structure and individual agency are mutually constitutive, not opposed #expands (0.78)
• Determination fixes the combination of levels, not their inner form #qualifies (0.75)
• Constraints within activity domains paradoxically expand effective freedom of action #contradicts (0.72)