The problematization of agency in postmodern theory: as feminist educational researchers, where do we go from here?

Abstract

This paper reports on the discussion at a recent ‘salon’ on feminist agency. The views of the two invited speakers, who raised concerns about the impact of post‐modernism on political projects, are reported. The content of the general discussion around subjectivity, agency and structure are then set out. The group struggled with the possibilities and limitations of theory in these areas. In discussing how feminist theory might be taken forward, the group stressed the centrality and necessity of collectivities as enabling resistance and other expressions of agency. The group felt that further exploration and analysis of the notion of and feelings of selfhood are necessary to adequately conceptualize individual and collective agency, and the way in which structure inflects such agency and collectivities. Such work would also need to attend to issues of ‘difference’ such as social class and ethnicity, and to the emotional and/or psychic dimension involved in our construction of agency and selfhood.