Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

What Is Agency?

1998; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 103; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/231294

1537-5390

Mustafa Emirbayer, Ann Mische,

Social Policy and Reform Studies

This article aims (1) to analytically disaggregate agency into its several component elements (though these are interrelated empirically), (2) to demonstrate the ways in which these agentic dimensions interpenetrate with forms of structure, and (3) to point out the implications of such a conception of agency for empirical research. The authors conceptualize agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its “iterational” or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a “projective” capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a “practical‐evaluative” capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment).