Agency

Question 1

Definition

Answer 1

• The capability or power to be the source and originator of acts
• Often confused with free will or resistance
• Agents are the ones who act

Question 2

Weber

Answer 2

• Intentionality
• Acts distinguished from mere (animal) behaviour
• Entails a number of features of human rationality: consciousness, reflection, intention, purpose and meaning

Question 3

Durkheim

Answer 3

Structure

• Structures guide and constrain human actions
• Provide conditions and norms which we can act within

Question 4

Structure vs Agency

Answer 4

• Socialization against autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure
• Are acts predetermined and constrained by structure?

Question 5

Bourdieu

Answer 5

• Habitus represents the way group culture and personal history shape the body and the mind and as a result shape social action in the present
• Structures produce the habitus, a system of durable, transposable dispositions
• Practices reproduce and sustain these structures - body as a mnemonic device, used to held remember and cement something

Question 6

Gell

Answer 6

Splits agency into

• Primary (intentional) agency (people)
• Secondary (distributed) agency (things)