CFP: Distributed Cognition and Distributed Agency

Debates about embodied, extended, and distributed cognition now address not only metaphysical issues about the location and boundaries of the mind, but also broader questions about culture and cognition, agency, and the self. These debates make points of contact with diverse philosophical traditions (including phenomenology, pragmatism, and moral psychology), with diverse social scientific fields (such as science studies, cognitive ethnography, and studies of interaction and material culture), as well as with cognitive, social, and developmental psychology, and the cognitive neurosciences.

For this workshop we seek theoretical and empirically-informed papers which fill out or broaden the conceptual tools available for understanding the nature and mechanisms of distributed or embodied cognition. We particularly welcome proposals which address the integration of environmental resources (social and cultural as well as material and technological) into cognitive practices. Papers can either contribute to mainstream debates about cognitive integration, complementarity, and 2nd-wave extended mind, or apply these concepts to specific domains and topics, such as (but not limited to) narrative and self, agency, embodiment and skilled movement, language and gesture, communication and interaction, memory, collective intentionality, performance, and cognitive niche construction.

Abstracts of proposed papers, of between 250 and 500 words, should be sent to Michael Kirchhoff at [email protected] by Friday 10th February. Decisions on acceptance/ rejection will be communicated by 17th February.

We anticipate scheduling longer and shorter paper sessions. In submitting your abstract, please indicate which one you would prefer if accepted, or if either option is fine. Graduate students are encouraged to submit.

There will be no registration fee for attending the conference, but advance registration will be required. Full details to follow.

Enquiries to the workshop organizers: Richard Menary ([email protected]) or John Sutton ([email protected])

Hosts and sponsors:
CCD (Centre for Cognition and its Disorders)
CAVE (Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics)
Australian Research Council