An Integrative Process-Model of Agency within Identity Work
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
Organization Theory Winter Workshop
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
Agency within identity work is a frequently employed concept. It appears in a substantial number of studies concerned with identity construction and is one of the central issues of the identity work perspective (Brown 2015; 2019; 2022; Coupland & Brown, 2012; Ybema et al., 2009; Alvesson et al., 2008). Theorizing about agency is related to the question how autonomous and free the author of identity work is in the process of constructing his/her identity. This question is crucial but also not easy to answer, as identity is ?regarded as imposed upon but not defined, shaped but not determined; continuously improvised and [?] negotiated within relations of power? (Brown, 2022,1217). In this sense, agency is theorized as a concept "in between". This has the advantage of avoiding the two extreme perspectives that see the individual as either completely determined by society or discourse (as in post-structuralism) without any agency or, on the other hand, as free and autonomous (as in humanism) with unrestricted agency (Caldwell, 2007; Clegg, 2006). However, a multifaceted but unclear picture emerges (Ahearn, 2001), which does not answer the question of why the unfolding of agency is simultaneously so difficult and yet remains possible. Moreover, the questions of what influences agency, what constrains it and how it can be expanded is taken up in an oversimplified and inconclusive way. I take a processual view that aims to illustrate how agency can be theorized as 'in-between' and complex, but at the same time clearly defined.
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