From controlled experiments to formative interventions in studies of agency: methodological considerations

The article explores the possibility of developing a methodology for studying the emergence of agentive action experimentally. It discusses the limitations of classic experimental research and seeks a different perspective on the issue of control. The argument starts by reviewing how the concept of an experiment has been expanded throughout the years in social scientific research. Then new openings are considered toward experiments beyond the control paradigm and a methodology of formative interventions, particularly suitable to the study of the emergence of agentive actions. Three central qualities of experiments beyond the control paradigm within the cultural- historical approach are suggested, namely (1) building on participants’ conflicts of motives, (2) focusing on the formation of participants’ agentive actions of making sense of and transforming the experimental situation, and (3) following temporal and spatial expansions beyond the initial frame of the experiment. The article concludes with a discussion of the broader methodological implications of these new openings.