Constrained Agency Research Articles

Extending the ethnographic toolbox: photovoice and everyday experiences of marginalised groups

This paper explores how photovoice can be used to understand the everyday life experiences of marginalised groups. We ask what kind of knowledge photovoice elicits and how this contributes to other ethnographic methods to enhance our understanding of subjective experiences. Based on two photovoice projects in Ghana/Burkina Faso and Thailand we show that participants generate aesthetic accounts of their everyday life that are both poetic and emotional. Drawing on feminist approaches to agency, we argue that the aesthetic construction of photos and stories permits us a different insight into how participants reflect on their conditions, perceive power dynamics within social structures and, in doing so construct (political) messages. Without overlooking the oppressive structures that they navigate, their accounts highlight their constrained agency and contrast victimising accounts. As such, we extend the use of photovoice beyond a tool for empowerment to reflect on its contributions as a visual method to methodological and theoretical debates around everyday, emotional experiences and how these, as argued within feminist geography, are constituted on different scales.

The Roles and Intersections of Constrained Labour Agency

AbstractEver since labour geography first started demonstrating workers’ ability to shape geographies, geographers have problematised the agency of labour. This article responds to a recent intervention by Strauss (2020a; Progress in Human Geography 44[1]:150–159), challenging the sub‐discipline to reflect on who counts as a worker and what counts as work. By combining theories of roles and intersectionality, the article poses a related question: as whom do workers act? Theoretically, a critical realist approach to labour agency forms the basis for an intersectional reading of the active subject. To illustrate our argument, we juxtapose the accounts of three people who speak for groups of workers or are asked to justify the actions of collective actors like unions or social movements. By showing how these actors improvise their own role incumbency while actively negotiating social identities, the article problematises the epistemology of constrained labour agency while responding to Strauss’ call for a rethinking of the ontologies of work.

“Predators of Emotions”: The Role of School Assessment Policies in English Language Teachers' Emotion Labor

AbstractEmotion labor is expecting individuals to display institutionally‐accepted emotional behaviors. This study examined the role of school assessment policies in 13 Iranian English language teachers' emotion labor in a private language school. To this end, data were collected from semi‐structured interviews and narrative frames. Data analyses revealed three major themes in relation to the teachers' assessment‐related emotion labor: Constrained assessment agency, resilience in assessment, and the significance of heeding assessment emotions. The study shows that top‐down policies of the school created emotional conflicts for the teachers, yet such policies in turn motivated the teachers to invest more in implementing assessment techniques that respond to their own and students' needs. The findings are discussed in light of contextual particularities of assessment, which are linked to power and dominant discourses shaping teachers' assessment‐related emotion labor. Based on the findings, we provide implications for policymakers and teacher educators to pay more focal attention to teachers' assessment emotions and emotion labor.

Cultural capital and constrained agency in debt-migration for construction work in India

ABSTRACT Debt-migration is endemic in construction work in India, where exploitative social relations are an integral part of businesses’ capital accumulation model that can entrap migrants in forced labour and perpetual indebtedness. Drawing on concepts of cultural capital, ‘constrained agency’, and qualitative interviews with migrants and their wives, this study examines the embodied and material practices that migrants in Telangana use to challenge power hierarchies and embark on different life trajectories. The paper draws out the gendered differences in cultural capital and agential strategies that migrants use to place themselves and their families on an upwardly mobile path. Although still in debt, many migrants had succeeded in buying land, investing in farming, marrying their daughters, releasing themselves from moneylenders, and educating their children privately. A few had transitioned to working and living more permanently in the city of Hyderabad. This research sheds new light on how constrained agency and the use of cultural capital intersects with gender, ethnicity, and caste. It also shows that while the situations of both those who continue to circulate and those who settle in the city remain precarious, small incremental changes can add up to a significant shift in social and economic circumstances.

I Refused to Say #MeToo: Negotiating Between Individual Agency and ‘Imagined’ Platform Constraints

This article describes how ‘imagined’ constraints of the social media platform by its users stand crucial while actualising platform affordances and exercising individual agency. I use the term ‘imagined constraints’ to explain how constraints of the media platform are speculated by my participants while they negotiate between the materiality of the platform and social environment to formulate their restricted agency. Here, I use a recent example of feminist hashtag movement ‘#MeToo’ as a case in point. Previous literature addressing feminist hashtag activism and other social movements influenced by social media platforms mainly discuss the participatory potential of these platforms. However, empirical investigation into the factors leading to non-participation in movements like #MeToo has hardly captured any scholarly attention. To address this existing gap in the literature, this article analyses embodied experiences shared through in-depth interviews by 11 Indian women who made a conscious decision of not participating in the #MeToo movement. I discuss my results taking into consideration theories of ‘imagined platform affordances’ and shaping of individual agency in terms of activist participation. I discuss that ‘Imagined constraints’ of the social media platform are chiefly shaped by an individual’s analysis of their sociocultural environment in which media platforms exist. These imagined constraints of a platform lead to constitute a ‘constrained agency’ of an individual. I argue that, while we theorise the potential of social media platforms in facilitating hashtag feminist movements like #MeToo, we must take into consideration the formulation of ‘imagined constraints of the platform’ by its users, as it stands crucial in guiding their participatory action.

Constrained Agency while Negotiating Spanish Colonialism: A Bioarchaeological, Isotopic, and Ancient DNA Study of the Vinchos Cave Mummies, Ayacucho, Peru

Spanish colonial rule in Peru was marked by dramatic changes to indigenous mortuary customs, bodily practices, and morbidity profiles. However, that era of transformation was not solely shaped by Spanish policies; Native Andeans creatively negotiated with those newcomers, sculpting novel practices that sometimes integrated, and other times challenged, the Spanish agenda. Theoretical perspectives on the constrained agency of indigenous communities under colonial rule and the negotiated outcomes of those colonial encounters are explored through a case study of mummy burials from the cave site of Vinchos in highland Peru and comparisons to other colonial Andean populations. We conduct osteological and stable isotope analyses, molecular assessment of sex chromosomes, and ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of the Vinchos mummies and 3,314 other HVR1 sequences from South America (haplotype network analysis). Results show that there are four adults, one child, and one fetus/infant. mtDNA analysis shows three distinct mtDNA lineages. Principal coordinate analysis shows that the Vinchos individuals are near to modern and ancient populations from the Andes; haplotype network analysis shows that one individual shares a haplotype with several geographically dispersed groups in South America, while three individuals exhibit two unique haplotypes. The data show the ongoing practice of cranial modification, the continuation of native mortuary practices, and some continuities in diet and foodways. Despite Spanish colonial attempts to eradicate indigenous practices, these multiple data sets reveal the agential capacities of Native Andeans—though constrained by colonial structures—to continue specific cultural traditions and forge novel practices while subjects of the Spanish Crown. La colonizacion espanola en Peru llevo cambios dramaticos en las costumbres mortuorias indigenas, las practicas corporales y los perfiles de morbilidad. Sin embargo, este periodo de transformacion no fue creado unicamente por las politicas espanolas. Los nativos andinos negociaron creativamente con los espanoles, desarrollando practicas novedosas que a veces integraban, y otras veces desafiaban, la agenda espanola. Las perspectivas teoricas sobre la agencia restringida de las comunidades indigenas y los resultados negociados del gobierno colonial se exploran a traves de un estudio de caso de entierros de momias del sitio de la cueva de Vinchos en las tierras altas de Peru en comparacion con otros poblados andinos. Realizamos analisis de isotopos estables y osteologicos, evaluacion molecular de cromosomas sexuales, analisis de mtADN antiguo de las momias de Vinchos y otras 3,314 secuencias de HVRI de America del Sur (analisis de red de haplotipos). Los resultados muestran que hay cuatro adultos, un nino y un feto/infante. El analisis de mtADN muestra tres linajes de mtADN distintos. El analisis de coordenadas principales muestra que los individuos Vinchos estan cerca de las poblaciones modernas y antiguas de los Andes. El analisis de la red de haplotipos muestra que un individuo comparte un haplotipo con varios grupos geograficamente dispersos en America del Sur, mientras que tres individuos exhiben dos haplotipos unicos. Los datos muestran la practica continua de modificacion craneal, la continuacion de las practicas mortuorias nativas (al menos para algunos) y algunas continuidades en la dieta y los alimentos. A pesar de los intentos coloniales por erradicar las practicas indigenas, estos conjuntos de datos multiples revelan las capacidades agenciales de los andinos nativos, aunque estan limitados por las estructuras coloniales, para continuar con tradiciones culturales especificas y forjar practicas novedosas mientras son sujetos de la Corona espanola.

AGENCY IN LATE-CAREER TRANSITIONS: THE IMPACT ON ADJUSTMENT AND SATISFACTION

In research on late career transitions agency is implicitly assumed. The extent to which older adults are able to shape their late career in the face of external constraints, such as a rising state pension age, may however be limited. Constraint agency may have impact on well-being. Using data from a panel study among 5,300 older workers in the Netherlands, we examined the impact of agency in the work-retirement transition on adjustment and life satisfaction. Results show that adjustment to a the higher retirement age is more challenging than adjustment to retirement. Life satisfaction increased among those who retired, but not among those who remained working. One third experienced constrained agency (involuntary retirement or non-retirement). The negative association between constrained agency and life satisfaction was stronger for participants still in the labor force than for retirees. Our findings demonstrate that involuntary non-retirement has stronger implications for well-being than involuntary retirement.

Introduction

The enduring experience of hardship, in the form of layers of various crises, can become deeply ingrained in a society, and people can come to act and react under these conditions as if they lead a normal life. This process is explored through the analytical concept of duress, which contains three elements: enduring and accumulating layers of hardship over time, the normalization of this hardship, and a form of deeply constrained agency. We argue that decisions made in duress have a significant impact on the social and political structures of society. This concept of duress is used as a lens to understand the lives of individual people and societies in Central and West Africa that have a long history of ecological, political, and social conflicts and crises.

Towards a pluralist labor geography: Constrained grassroots agency and the socio-spatial fix in Dȇrsim, Turkey

This paper explores the interplay between capital, socio-spatial structure and grassroots agency in the context of the recent trajectories of labor geography. Based on field research conducted in Dȇrsim, Turkey, our analysis unfolds the constraining role of socio-spatial structure in the agency and praxis of grassroots movements and their geography-making and crisis-displacement from below. Through the case study, we propound a concept of socio-spatial fix to explain how this praxis conjoins with and assists capital in both staving off its recurrent crises and reproducing its own logic of accumulation. Our analysis reveals that the socio-spatial fix in Dȇrsim, which is constituted by the grassroots struggle against hydroelectric power plant projects, performs three functions. First, it facilitates the production of capitalist social relations and spaces; second, it strengthens and maintains the existing social order through temporally moderating the province’s chronic problems; and third, it provides legitimacy for the capitalist exploitation of nature, culture and histories. Our research contributes to the emerging pluralist school of labor geography, providing an empirically substantiated insight into how capital reproduces itself via socio-spatial fixes produced by constrained grassroots agency.

Constrained Agency Theory and Leadership: A New Perspective to Understand How Female Police Officers Overcome the Structural and Social Impediments to Promotion

Substantial research has examined both the barriers preventing women from entering and flourishing in policing and the coping mechanisms used to adapt to the gendered institution of policing. However, there is scant research that examines the mechanisms by which some women successfully navigate the police bureaucracy. Drawing from in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 47 female officers from 30 law enforcement agencies across seven states, we apply Constrained Agency Theory as a means to identify and understand how women capitalize on conditions and opportunities to advance and/or gain promotion in gendered organizations. The purpose of our research is to explore the efficacy of this theoretical framework for the study of women in policing. Results suggest that Constrained Agency Theory offers a promising way of understanding how female officers experience and utilize opportunities and conditions for advancement across a variety of agencies, generations, and organizational cultures.

Urban assemblage, street youth and the sub-Saharan African city

This paper draws on the explanatory power of assemblage thinking to consider the lives and urban experiences of young people growing up on the streets of sub-Saharan African cities. Urban assemblage is used to articulate a ‘thick description’ of the practices of coping with extreme poverty and marginalisation and to identify the effects of these actions on the construction of both young lives and the city. Focusing on a central idea of urban assemblage as a process of formation/transformation, the paper examines the strategies and performances adopted by street youth to meet their basic needs and navigate complex power and social relationships. Highlighting constrained agency, assemblage thinking is employed to demonstrate how multiple small actions of coping shape the urban experiences of street youth and their transition into adulthood.

Constrained relationship agency as the risk factor for intimate partner violence in different models of transactional sex

Women who engage in transactional sex are more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and are at higher risk of HIV. However, women engage in transactional sex for a variety of reasons and the precise mechanism linking transactional sex and IPV is not fully understood. We conducted a behavioural survey with a cross-sectional sample of 401 women attending 1 rural and 1 urban public antenatal clinic in Swaziland between February and June 2014. We used structural equation modelling to identify and measure constrained relationship agency (CRA) as a latent variable, and then tested the hypothesis that CRA plays a significant role in the pathway between IPV and transactional sex. After controlling for CRA, receiving more material goods from a sexual partner was not associated with higher levels of physical or sexual IPV and was protective against emotional IPV. CRA was the single largest predictor of IPV, and more education was associated with decreased levels of constrained relationship agency. Policies and interventions that target transactional sex as a driver of IPV and HIV may be more successful if they instead target the broader social landscape that constrains women’s agency and drives the harmful aspects of transactional sex.

Constrained Agency in Later Working Lives: Introduction to the Special Issue

In the social sciences there is an ongoing debate about the primacy of structure or agency in shaping individual behaviors. This Special Issue presents a comprehensive set of papers on structure and agency in the area of later working lives and retirement, specifically focusing on situations where agency is constrained. The papers (a) study a diverse set of labor market situations in which individual agency is constrained, (b) focus on individual- and country-level predictors of constrained agency, and (c) provide insights regarding consequences of constrained agency in different areas of life. A broad range of country contexts are covered in the articles and rich—often longitudinal—data sources are used to advance our understanding of agency in later working lives. The current Introduction to the Special Issue elaborates on the theoretical background linking the different papers, briefly describes the different papers, and discusses directions for future research to follow from the full set of papers.

“When the skies fight”: HIV, violence and pathways of precarity in South Africa

Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the skies that fight, the proverbial lightning strikes that bring HIV into women’s lives and bodies. Departing from earlier studies on ARV programmes in and beyond South Africa, and broadening out to explore the chronic struggle for life in a context of entrenched socio-economic inequality, this article presents findings on women’s embodiment of and strategic resistance to structural and interpersonal violence. These linked forms of violence are discussed in light of the concept of precarity. Across two sections, the findings trace the pathways through which precarity entered women’s lives, drawing on verbal, visual and written accounts collected through participant observation, participatory photography and film, and journey mapping. In doing so, the ethnography articulates the intersection of structural and interpersonal violence in women’s lives. It also reveals the extent to which women exert a ‘constrained agency’, on the one hand, to resist structural violence and reconfigure their political relationship with the state through health activism; and, on the other hand, to shift the gender dynamics that fuel interpersonal violence through a careful navigation of intimacy and independence.

Constrained Labour Agency and the Changing Regulatory Regime in China

ABSTRACTUsing the concept of ‘constrained agency’ introduced by Neil Coe and David Jordhus‐Lier, this article attempts to evaluate the possibilities and constraints facing labour agency in the Pearl River Delta in China. By reviewing the social, economic and political background of the changing labour market and labour regulations in China, and through an intensive case study of a workers’ strike and its consequences, the author argues that Chinese migrant workers have begun to challenge the state's regulatory regime on labour, which is based on individual rights. However, the introduction of a regulatory framework based on collective rights is being impeded by the party‐state's manipulation of trade unions and the strong influence of global capital on local labour policy.

Constrained Agency on Contraceptive Use among Somali Refugee Women in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya

This report discusses constraints on contraceptive use and implications for family planning among Somali refugee women settled in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. It is based on a postgraduate study on the various perceptions and attitudes among Somali refugee women to contraception, and their interaction with family planning service providers. The study was conducted in two stages with 32 respondents, who included married and unmarried women and men between the ages of 19 and 58. The first stage included four focus group discussions with 22 participants, and explored general views on contraceptive use and family planning. The second stage comprised face-to-face individual interviews with 10 key respondents. The findings suggest that even though the majority of Somali refugee women do not use contraceptives, it is not by choice, but due to the numerous barriers they face. Hence, instead of supporting choice policy approaches, there is a need to redress their concerns about contraceptives and remove the constraints that hinder their use.

Constrained Agency in Corporate Social Media Policy

Corporate social media policies construct what Herndl and Licona term “constrained agency,” an ambiguous, contradictory agent function. Drawing on an analysis of 31 corporate social media policies, this article argues that these policies create constrained agency in two ways: they establish contradictory expectations for a writer's voice by requesting both individual and corporate-friendly voices, and they create a seemingly paradoxical situation where employees both do and do not represent the company. These policies shed light on the complex constructions of agency within corporations and encapsulate the workplace tensions that accompany the affordances of social media tools.

Constrained maternal agency is associated with poor child feeding practices and child undernutrition: evidence from twelve low‐income countries

Recent policies have emphasized that increasing women's status is a necessary action to improve child nutrition. However, few studies have examined the effect of women's status on undernutrition across multiple contexts. This study examines the relationship between women's agency, independent of education and income, and child feeding and nutrition in 12 low‐income countries in four world regions (n= 42,677).Constrained women's agency—limitations on the capacity of women to take action given their assets and capabilities—was associated with inadequate child feeding practices. Women who were underweight were less likely to meet the majority of WHO feeding indicators while those with media access, were involved in household decisions, and were employed were more likely to meet these indicators.Low maternal agency was associated with greater child undernutrition, while evidence of improved agency reduced the likelihood of undernutrition. Women who were underweight were twice as likely to have an underweight or wasted child, while women who believed domestic abuse was justified were 20% more likely to have a stunted child. Evidence of opportunities for improved agency was associated with improved child nutrition status. Actions to improve women's agency are likely to improve child feeding and prevent under nutrition.Supported by the Borgenicht Program for Aging Studies.

Agency without autonomy: valuational agency

National minority women's defense of non-liberal minority cultures that encompass sexist customs and rules has greatly perplexed liberal theorists. Many attempted to resolve this puzzle by attributing constrained agency to such women and dismissing their defense as unreasonable. This article argues that this liberal assessment of minority women's position is philosophically indefensible and that the failure of mainstream liberalism to make sense of these women's response indicates not that these women's agency is compromised but rather that the liberal conception of agency as autonomy has limits in its cross-cultural applicability. An alternative conception of agency, valuational agency, that illuminates minority women's agency is proposed as a more plausible alternative for radically pluralistic societies.

Examining ‘Social Investment’ Policy in a Multi-Ethnic Sure Start Area: Staff Perspectives

This article, based on a study conducted in a multi-ethnic Sure Start programme between 2003–6, explores aspects of the interface between policy, implementation and use of services. The early Sure Start discourse depicted parents both as legitimate recipients of support and as active and aspirational agents. It is argued that the second of these identities, tapping into a ‘social investment’ agenda, increasingly characterised the direction of the policy discourse. Interview data from professionals in the case study area about local need and use of services, however, emphasised the ‘constrained agency’ of many local mothers, and the inappropriateness therefore of the perceived direction of policy.