Reconceptualizing Agency within the Life Course: The Power of Looking Ahead.

(2015) - Steven Hitlin, Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson

Journal: American Journal of Sociology
Link::
DOI:: 10.1086/681216
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Tags:: #paper #LifeCourse #SocialTheory
Cite Key:: [@hitlinReconceptualizingAgencyLife2015]

Abstract

Empirical treatments of agency have not caught up with theoretical explication; empirical projects almost always focus on concurrent beliefs about one’s ability to act successfully without sufficiently attending to temporality. The authors suggest that understanding the modern life course necessitates a multidimensional understanding of subjective agency involving (a) perceived capacities and (b) perceived life chances, or expectations about what life holds in store. The authors also suggest that a proper understanding of agency’s potential power within a life course necessitates moving beyond the domain-specific expectations more typical of past sociological work. Using the Youth Development Study, the authors employ a scale of general life expectations in adolescence to explore the potential influence of a general sense of optimistic life expectations in addition to the traditional approach on a range of important outcomes.

Notes

“Empirical treatments of agency have not caught up with theoretical explication; empirical projects almost always focus on concurrent beliefs about one’s ability to act successfully without sufficiently attending to temporality.” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1429)

“understanding the modern life course necessitates a multidimensional understanding of subjective agency involving ðaÞ perceived capacities and ðbÞ perceived life chances, or expectations about what life holds in store” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1429)

“We can’t be content with knowing what kind of people we are; it matters, too, what kind of people we hope to be. ðAppiah 2008, p. 72Þ” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1429)

“We suggest that understanding the modern life course necessitates a multidimensional understanding of individual subjective senses of agency involving ðaÞ perceived capacities and ðbÞ perceived life chances.” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1431)

“Typically, discussions of agency focus on nonroutine actions stemming from or attempting to address problematic situations, such as Sewell’s ð1992, p. 18Þ definition of agency as “entailing the capacity to transpose and extend schemas to new contexts.”” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1432)

“Individuals are increasingly responsible for their life courses within Western societies, partly as a result of dissolving class networks ðHonneth 2004Þ.” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1432) Not sure about this one buddy

“Some people structurally have more agentic opportunities based on power and resource accumulation” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1434)

“Personal control can be eroded, however, if an individual repeatedly encounters difficult life events ðWolinsky et al. 2003Þ;itisa learned, generalized expectation ðMirowsky and Ross 2003Þ reinforced by the accumulated feedback of life events.” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1437)

“Perhaps the most well-established sociological notion of agency as influencing the life course comes from its development—measured as personal control—through obtaining higher education ðMirowsky and Ross 2003, 2007Þ. One of the core effects of education is increasing this sense of control/agency that, in turn, contributes to a range of optimal life outcomes” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1438)

“Belief about one’s agentic capacity necessitates an understanding of temporality; individuals conceive themselves as ongoing agents with life projects ðTaylor 1989; Archer 2003; McAdams 2013Þ.” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1438)

“We empirically introduce a measure of “life course expectations,” the anticipation of life outcomes, as a second dimension of agency capturing the cognitive and emotional core of a future orientation, a notion underlying prominent theoretical treatments but thus far absent from its empirical development. This forward-looking set of life expectations reflects people’s knowledge of structural constraints and opportunities as well as elements of optimism ðPeterson 2000; Frye 2012Þ, positive or negative orientations toward their chances of achieving their goals in life, adding an emotional valence to the theoretical discussion of agency’s temporal aspects, discussed previously” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1439)

“modeled young adult outcomes using growth models, a hierarchical modeling technique in which observations across time are nested within” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1446)

“individuals” (Hitlin and Johnson, 2015, p. 1447)