The Nature and Sources of Agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-190
Author(s):  
Robert Huggins ◽  
Piers Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Community Culture

This chapter argues that constructs such as self-efficacy and innovativeness are closely associated with agency. This refers to the ability of individuals to make changes to their environment, and the chapter discusses that this is not just related to an individual’s own abilities and skills but is also constrained by their power relations. It is argued that agency can be captured both in terms of the ability to intentionally take actions to cause change or prevent change, or the actual actions themselves. Therefore, it may be best to think of the former as human agency potential (HAP) and the latter as manifestations of human agency, or human agency actualization (HAA), and this chapter considers measures of both. The chapter seeks to establish the links from community culture and personality via values and norms to human agency. It expands on notions relating to HAP and HAA, and empirically develops measures of HAP.

Improvisational Self-Directed Learning

2018 ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Norris
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Psychological Capital ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Global Competition ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Consumer Expectations ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Direct Learning

Contemporary organizations are characterized as complex and continually changing as a result of global competition, technological advances, and fluctuating consumer expectations. Flourishing within continually changing environments requires professionals with the capacity to thrive within a dynamic context. Developing the capacity to think and act quickly is important and doing so with competency and character is paramount. Becoming an effective organizational professional requires proficiency in improvisational self-direct learning. Improvisational self-directed learning describes people who can solve novel and surprising problems, create value from fortuitous events, and take action without preplanning. The exercise of human agency, bolstered by strong psychological capital, which includes self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience, is presented as the foundation for self-directed improvisational learning.

Career decision-making and career search activities: Relative effects of career search self-efficacy and human agency.

1995 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Scott Solberg ◽  
Glenn E. Good ◽  
Ann R. Fischer ◽  
Steven D. Brown ◽  
et al
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Career Decision Making

Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency.

1982 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Bandura
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Human Agency

Agency, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation

2021 ◽  
pp. 191-217
Author(s):  
Robert Huggins ◽  
Piers Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Regional Development ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Regional Competitiveness ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
High Road

This chapter explores whether community culture and personality traits are associated with entrepreneurial activities. It seeks to consider the importance of personality held at the individual level and culture held at the group level. This allows the connections between the foundations of the behavioural model of regional development—community culture and personality—and activities associated with the regional development to be explored. It further explores the extent to which human agency plays a role in determining the nature of entrepreneurial endeavours. Following an examination of behavioural micro-relationships at the individual level, the analysis then moves on to examine evidence of the relationship between human agency and differing forms of regional development. It focuses on traditional economic measures of development including GDP and unemployment, but also considers inputs and outputs from innovation and the entrepreneurial environment required to generate high-road regional competitiveness.

scholarly journals Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers’ Legitimacy Negotiation in North American ELT Classrooms

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Song
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
English Language ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking Teachers

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complexities of non-native English-speaking teachers’ (NNESTs’) legitimacy negotiation process in North American English language teaching (ELT) classrooms. This paper explores how NNESTs’ processes and outcomes of legitimacy negotiation can be impacted by unbalanced power relations, assigned-identity, and human agency. By drawing on various sociocultural theories, particularly power relations (Bourdieu, 1977; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain 2001; Norton, 2000), identity (Norton, 2000; Harklau, 2000; Morita, 2004), and human agency (Canagarajah, 1999; Norton & Toohey, 2001; Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001), the analysis examines how the three factors—unbalanced power relations, assigned identity and personal agency manifest themselves in NNESTs’ attempting to cross barriers erected by language, culture, and racial boundaries.

How to transform peasants into seamen: The manning of the Swedish navy and a double-faced maritime culture

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-707
Author(s):  
AnnaSara Hammar
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Rural Culture ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Maritime Culture ◽  
Crucial Part

During the seventeenth century Sweden rapidly changed from a small insignificant country in Europe’s northern periphery to a great military power. The navy was a crucial part of the expansion, but to maintain a standing navy was a demanding task for a comparatively poor and sparsely populated country. One of many difficulties was to recruit skilled and competent seamen. Sweden had no large merchant fleet that could serve the navy with experienced men, and to hire professional crews would have been too expensive. The solution was to recruit poor men from the lower strata of society in coastal villages and towns through what is known as the allotment system (in Swedish: indelningsverket). Those men normally had very little experience of handling large sailing vessels but were soon trained for the task. Once conscripted in the navy they lived two lives. In the summer during the sailing season they were naval seamen. During winter they became farmhands, workers and craftsmen ashore. Thus they constructed a maritime culture of their own, with ideals and values that sometimes were closely linked to a broader maritime culture in Europe and sometimes had more in common with a Swedish rural community culture. This article investigates how this maritime/rural culture was shaped; to what extent the seamen adjusted themselves to a military order and finally what happened when the seamen’s values and ideas collided with the hierarchy and power relations within the navy.

scholarly journals Unpacking power dynamics in research and evaluation on social accountability for sexual and reproductive health and rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Schaaf ◽  
Suzanne Cant ◽  
Joanna Cordero ◽  
Sana Contractor ◽  
Etobssie Wako ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Realist Evaluation ◽  
Social Accountability ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Evaluation Approaches

AbstractOver the past decade, social accountability for health has coalesced into a distinct field of research and practice. Whether explicitly stated or not, changed power relations are at the heart of what social accountability practitioners seek, particularly in the context of sexual and reproductive health. Yet, evaluations of social accountability programs frequently fail to assess important power dynamics. In this commentary, we argue that we must include an examination of power in research and evaluation of social accountability in sexual and reproductive health, and suggest ways to do this. The authors are part of a community of practice on measuring social accountability and health outcomes. We share key lessons from our efforts to conduct power sensitive research using different approaches and methods.First, participatory research and evaluation approaches create space for program participants to engage actively in evaluations by defining success. Participation is also one of the key elements of feminist evaluation, which centers power relations rooted in gender. Participatory approaches can strengthen ‘traditional’ health evaluation approaches by ensuring that the changes assessed are meaningful to communities.Fields from outside health offer approaches that help to describe and assess changes in power dynamics. For example, realist evaluation analyses the causal processes, or mechanisms, grounded in the interactions between social, political and other structures and human agency; programs try to influence these structures and/or human agency. Process tracing requires describing the mechanisms underlying change in power dymanics in a very detailed way, promoting insight into how changes in power relationships are related to the broader program.Finally, case aggregation and comparison entail the aggregation of data from multiple cases to refine theories about when and how programs work. Case aggregation can allow for nuanced attention to context while still producing lessons that are applicable to inform programming more broadly.We hope this brief discussion encourages other researchers and evaluators to share experiences of analysing power relations as part of evaluation of social accountability interventions for sexual and reproductive health so that together, we improve methodology in this crucial area.

scholarly journals Dramaturgical self-efficacy and opportunity structures for white-collar crime

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oskar Engdahl
Keyword(s):  
Focal Mechanism ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Strong Potential ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPerceived self-efficacy is often held to be the most focal mechanism of human agency. It has shown strong potential to explain action in multiple areas highly relevant to understanding crime, at least when the concept is formulated in close connection with the conditions that characterize the criminal acts it is supposed to explain. This article introduces the concept in the context of white-collar crime. To advance our understanding of how opportunities for such crime work, self-efficacy is defined with regard to one’s ability to control others’ impression of financially relevant information, or what is called dramaturgical self-efficacy. The presentation of this concept and its various elements is illustrated with contemporary empirical cases of white-collar crime and is preceded by a discussion of how opportunity structures and perceived self-efficacy have been understood in previous research relevant to the field. The article also discusses how the concept can be further developed with regard to the relationship between motivation and opportunity for white-collar crime.

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