Overview
The Agency-Process-Scale (APS) framework is organised primarily through glossary definitions and articles grouped into conceptual clusters. These provide the core structure through which the framework is articulated and explored.
Alongside this structure, APS also supports the development of research streams - coherent, ongoing trajectories of inquiry that extend across multiple clusters and articles. These streams do not constitute an additional layer of classification, but a way of organising sustained investigation within the framework.
What Research Streams Are
A research stream in APS is a programmatic pathway of inquiry defined by a shared conceptual focus and sustained through a sequence of related analyses, articles, and theoretical developments.
Research streams are characterised by:
- Continuity - they develop over time through multiple contributions
- Cross-cluster integration - they draw on and connect concepts from different domains of the framework
- Theoretical direction - they pursue a defined line of explanatory or conceptual work
Examples include investigations into:
- the detection and definition of life
- the continuity of cognition across biological systems
- the ethical and normative implications of viability-oriented organisation
These are not isolated topics but structured programmes of work that unfold within the APS explanatory framework.
What Research Streams Are Not
Research streams should not be confused with other organisational elements of APS:
- They are not clusters - clusters group existing content by conceptual domain
- They are not articles -articles are individual contributions within or across streams
- They are not glossary entries - glossary terms define the conceptual vocabulary of the framework
Research streams instead operate at a different level: they organise ongoing inquiry, not static content.
Relation to Clusters and Articles
APS clusters provide the primary organisational structure for articles, grouping them into domains such as cognition, empirical interface, or explanatory grammar.
Research streams cut across these domains. A single stream may include:
- articles from multiple clusters
- shared conceptual dependencies
- a common trajectory of theoretical development
This allows APS to support both:
- structured knowledge biological organisation (through clusters), and
- programmatic research development (through streams)
without conflating the two.
Developmental Status
Research streams represent an emerging organisational dimension of APS. They are defined conceptually but are not yet exposed as a primary navigation pathway within the site.
As the framework develops and multiple streams become sufficiently elaborated, they may be formalised as a distinct access layer, complementing clusters and glossary entries.
Key Point
Research streams in APS are cross-cutting, programmatic trajectories of inquiry that organise sustained theoretical development without replacing or duplicating the cluster-based structure of the framework.