Abstract
Abstract This chapter explores Du Bois’s thinking on agency and how it fits into the larger landscape of social theory regarding action and practice. Covering his early work at the turn of the twentieth century through his later work on Black Reconstruction and other writings, the chapter shows that Du Bois offers four related but analytically separable conceptualizations of agency: (1) agency as social action, (2) agency as the creative use of structures in the face of oppressive conditions, (3) agency as independent free will that countervails social laws, and (4) agency as the action of subaltern actors that alters the course of historical events. Each of these reflects the distinct historical context of its emergence and the wider scholarly and political debates in which Du Bois was engaged. They stand as important contributions to social theories of action.
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