Intra-action

This is a term coined by Karen Barad to rethink connectivity, collaboration and individuation (see also the entry on singular).

“The neologism ‘‘intra-action’’ signifies the mutual constitution of entangled agencies. That is, in contrast to the usual ‘‘interaction,’’ which assumes that there are separate individual agencies that precede their interaction, the notion of intra-action recognizes that distinct agencies do not precede, but rather emerge through, their intra-action. It is important to note that the ‘‘distinct’’ agencies are only distinct in a relational, not an absolute, sense, that is, agencies are only distinct in relation to their mutual entanglement; they don’t exist as individual elements.”

Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, 2007, p33