Performance of Agency in Real-Life Encounters

Turning Unequal Power and Structural Constraint into Collaboration

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2049652
AutoresNanna Mik‐meyer (0000-0001-6312-8894, Copenhagen Business School Denmark, autor correspondente), Mark Haugaard (0000-0002-2031-8900, National University of Ireland Ireland)
Ano2021
Volume44
Fascículo3
Páginas504-532
Data de publicação2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSymbolic Interaction (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0195-6086 • E-ISSN: 1533-8665
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/symb.528
OpenAlexW3109058106
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas50

This article explores the performance of agency within the context of unequal power resources and structural constraint. Based on 23 video-recorded placement meetings in three homeless shelters, we find that participants' agency is the outcome of both collaboration and resistance. To avoid interaction that fails to empower, social actors engage in 'repair work' and face-saving practices. When clients display 'wrong face'-that is, bring problems to the table that are not considered 'reasonable'-then the service providers engage in 'repair work.' Participants turn conflict into collaborative agency because interactions that fail to deliver mutually empowering forms of agency have costs for both: clients' problems are not solved, and service providers fail to reach organizational goals

Business · Economics · Empowerment · Knowledge management · Microeconomics · Political science · Public relations · Service provider · Sociology · Computer Science · Engineering · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Homelessness and Social Issues · Labor Movements and Unions · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing