Michelle Greenwood, Professor in the Department of Management, Monash University will be the guest speak of the seminar hosted by Alan Morrison, Intesa Sanpaolo Professor of Business, Ethics, and Finance at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Rita Mota, Assistant Professor, Department of Society, Politics and Sustainability at Esade Business School, and an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.

'In this seminar, Michelle will examine how moral agency is mediated by everyday technologies using the context of academic knowledge production as an example. Drawing on postphenomenology (Ihde, 1990; Verbeek, 2011), we argue that while human agency is profoundly shaped by technology, it is neither erased nor entirely determined by it (Greenwood & Wolfram Cox, 2023). Postphenomenology highlights the distinct but mediated nature of human agency, contrasting with both the modernist assumption that humans are autonomous human subjects imposing on inanimate material objects and the radical prospect that humans and technology are symmetrical, mutually agentic beings.

The analysis centres on in/visibility—the degree to which the sources and outcomes of technological mediation are perceptible—and its implications for moral agency.  Generative AI deepens these quandaries by blurring human and technological boundaries even further. Despite these challenges, we argue that moral agency can be strengthened through intentional and reflective engagement with technological mediations. Recognizing and analysing the invisibilities inherent in these processes can empower individuals to evaluate how technology shapes their subjectivity and take responsibility for mediated decisions.'