Showing papers on "Structure and agency published in 2016"

Toward a critical sociology of lifestyle migration: reconceptualizing migration and the search for a better way of life

Abstract: This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two paradigms that are currently at work within theorizations of this social phenomenon – individualization and mobilities – we evaluate their contribution to this flourishing field of research. In this way, we demonstrate the limitations and constraints of these for understanding lifestyle migration; engaging with long-standing debates around structure and agency to make a case for the recognition of history in understanding the pursuit of ‘a better way of life’; questioning the extent to which meaning is made through movement, and the politics and ethics of replacing migration with mobilities. Through this systematic consideration, we pave the way for re-invigorated theorizing on this topic, and the development of a critical sociology of lifestyle migration.

The reflexive habitus: Critical realist and Bourdieusian social action

Abstract: The critical realist and Bourdieusian conceptions of action fundamentally disagree on a number of fronts: the synthetic versus dualistic relationship between structure and agency; the social nature of the self/body; the link between morphogenesis and reflexivity. Despite these differences, this article argues that re-reading Bourdieu’s theories with attention to some of the core tenets of critical realism (emergence, the stratification of reality, and conjunctural causality) can provide insights into how the habitus is capable of reflexivity and social change. In particular, this article reworks Bourdieu’s theory of habitus by suggesting that social selves are always situated at the intersection of multiple and competing social locations (or field positions) and that the habitus itself is always layered. Reflexivity arises from horizontal disjunctures (between field positions) and vertical disjunctures (across temporal sedimentation).

Narrative habitus: Thinking through structure/agency in the narratives of offenders

Abstract: Starting from the premise that experience is narratively constituted and actions are oriented through the self as the protagonist in an evolving story, narrative criminology investigates how narratives motivate and sustain offending. Reviewing narrative criminological research, this article contends that narrative criminology tends towards a problematic dualism of structure and agency, locating agency in individual narrative creativity and constraint in structure and/or culture. This article argues for a different conceptualisation of narrative as embodied, learned and generative, drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of habitus. Social action, which here includes storytelling, is structured via the habitus, which generates but does not determine social action. This theorisation understands structures and representations as existing in duality, according a more powerful role to storytelling. The article concludes by discussion of the implications of such a shift for narrative interventions towards offending.

Bring your own device to secondary school: The perceptions of teachers, students and parents.

Abstract: This paper reports on the first two years of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiative in a New Zealand secondary school, using data derived from a series of surveys of teachers, parents and students, who are the main stakeholders in the transformation to a BYOD school. In this paper we analyse data gathered from these surveys, which consists primarily of qualitative data from free text questions, but also includes some quantitative data from structured questions, giving insights into the challenges faced by teachers, students and parents in moving to a BYOD classroom, and the potential benefits for teaching and learning, and preparing students for a digital world. We frame our analysis from a sociocultural perspective that takes account of structures, agency and cultural practices and the interactions between these domains. Thematic analysis was performed by considering these domains from the responses of the three stakeholder groups. We found that there were some tensions in these domain relationships, with contexts and practices having to be renegotiated as the BYOD classroom and the structures within which it operates have evolved. On the surface, it appears that many of the changes to cultural practice are substitution or augmentation of previous activities, for example using one‑to‑one devices for researching and presenting material. However, when we look deeper, it is evident that apparently straightforward adoption of digital media is having a more profound impact on structure and agency within the classroom. While the structural impact of digital infrastructures does raise some concerns from all stakeholders, it is clear that it is the curricular structure that is the most contentious area of debate, given its impact on both agency and cultural practice. While the majority of respondents reported positive changes in classroom management and learning, there were nevertheless some concerns about the radical nature of the change to BYOD, though very rarely from teachers. If there is an area where agency may be most problematic, it i

Understanding How Structure and Agency Influence Education Policy Implementation and Organizational Change

Abstract: Policy implementation is a daily event in schools and districts. Educators engage with policies in many forms and must consider how to implement their multiple ideas in a coordinated manner. Take a classroom teacher who manages the following policies for one child identified with a disability: the federal policy on disability (IDEA), state policies around curriculum standards, her district’s policy on access to assistive technology, her school’s policy on inclusion, and her individual classroom policy on homework. Ample implementation research demonstrates that policies are rarely implemented as written nor necessarily as intended (e.g., Cohen and Hill 2001; Correnti and Rowan 2007; Kennedy 2005; Rowan and Miller 2007; Rowan et al. 2004; Stein et al. 1996). Yet while the policies rarely dictate exactly what happens in districts and schools, they do shape the daily work of the actors in these organizations (Coburn 2004; Drori and Honig 2013; Sherer and Spillane 2011). Across the United States, and internationally, reforms are both delivered to schools and districts at an

Accounting for the banking crisis: repertoires of agency and structure

Abstract: In this article, we conduct a discourse analysis of the testimony of the leaders of British banks during a UK public inquiry into the financial crisis. We examine the discursive devices that were used to handle the accountability of banking leaders, particularly their role in the events leading up to the collapse and subsequent state bail-out of the banks. Our analysis identifies two competing interpretative repertoires: an agentic repertoire and a structural repertoire. These repertoires are significant, we suggest, because they inform understanding of what went wrong with the banking system and what should be done to reform and regulate the sector. We conclude by calling for the notions of agency and structure to be treated as an object of study within discourse analysis rather than a form of social scientific explanation.

The problem of change in constructivist theory: Ontological security seeking and agent motivation

Abstract: Constructivism has a problem in accounting for agent-led change and for what motivates agents to make up their minds about how to put their agency to use. I show that constructivism’s problem of change is related to tensions between constructivism’s own key assumptions about the mutually constitutive relationship between structure and agency, understanding of change and to an essentialist conception of identity. I argue that agency is constituted through processes of ‘identification’ involving identity and narrative constructions and performance through practice and action. I make the perhaps controversial move to regard ontological security as a precondition for agent-led change and to identify ontological security maximisation as functionally equivalent to rationalist theories’ agent assumption of utility maximisation. I identify two strategies for maximising ontological security: a ‘strategy of being’ to secure a stable and esteem-enhancing identity and a strong narrative; and a ‘strategy of doing’ to ensure cognitive consistency through routinised practice whilst also undertaking action contributing to a sense of integrity and pride. The article concludes that although humans are endowed with agency, their actual ability to utilise their agency is severely constrained by their need for maintaining ontological security, which may explain why change appears so difficult to achieve.

Institutional Innovation and Change in Value Chain Development

Abstract: George Bernard Shaw once said that reasonable people adapt themselves to the world but unreasonable people adapt the world to themselves. In a sense, this book explores how these so-called ‘unreasonable people’ may interact to re-fashion the world around them in fragile economic development. Drawing on empirical research in the volatile and traditional context of Afghanistan, the study investigates the challenge of poor women’s participation in business and diverse outcomes for local development. Institutional Innovation and Change in Value Chain Development takes a unique look at nuanced institutional phenomena through the lens of social institutions, with a subtle appreciation of the interaction of structure and agency. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research in Afghanistan, the case studies specifically investigate the transformation of the women’s norm of purdah, and the subsequent development of new market institutions in three women’s enterprises. Shedding new light on the opaque process of institutional change, the research shows that external actors (such as NGOs) can both initiate and guide institutional development in fragile environments. Yet there may be limitations to their endeavours, with strong resistance from local power holders. Meanwhile, dominant entrepreneurs are shown to play a major role in fostering institutional development pathways. This influences the scope of inclusion and exclusion in enterprise and value chains, and broader streams of socio-economic development.

Theoretical issues in the ‘food desert’ debate and ways forward

Abstract: Food is essential to life—yet the spatial and economic configuration of the conventional food system does not meet nutritional needs and exacerbates issues of food insecurity. Relevant options for policy change have been explored in light of evaluations of geographic disparities in food access, but the dominant ‘food desert’ discourse often focuses uncritically on insufficient conceptions of access. Understanding the complexity of food deserts is important for moving into meaningful policy action. We present a theoretical position to inspire future empirical research. The ecological model recognizes both endogenous and built environment factors in shaping health. Interventions in the food environment, however, often concentrate exclusively on structural determinants of health (e.g. retail-based initiatives). Yet retail-based interventions are difficult to implement due to governance systems which limit the ability of government bodies to influence private retail development. As well, recognizing the complexity of debates over the influence of structure and agency, we apply structuration theory to food deserts. Behavioral economics further informs both structural and behavioral determinants of health. This approach sidesteps the issue of victim-blaming, as all consumers are viewed as ‘predictably irrational’ in decision-making. In combining these theories, we challenge methodological and theoretical assumptions by showing the complexity of food desert interventions. Policy recommendations focus on behavioral determinants of health and the opportunities for empowerment through local food systems. These recommendations recognize the limits of translating research into policy and in devising effective food based interventions, and are sensitive to social, economic, and political constraints uncovered throughout the paper.

Children as vulnerable consumers: a first conceptualisation

Abstract: Understandings of consumer vulnerability remain contentious and despite recent developments, models remain unsuitable when applied to children. Taxonomic models, and those favouring a ‘state’- or ‘class’-based approach have been replaced by those attempting to tackle both individual and structural antecedents. However, these are still overly individualistic and fail to progress from an artificial view that these dimensions work separately and independently. In contrast, the new sociology of childhood conceptualises childhood as a hybridised, fluid combination of structure and agency. This paper introduces this approach, new to the consumer vulnerability field, and proposes that it has considerable implications for the way that children’s consumer vulnerability is theorised and researched, and for the formulation of policy.

Going off Script: Structure and Agency in Individualized Education Program Meetings.

Abstract: In this comparative case study, we draw from neoinstitutional and structuration theory to examine the individualized education program (IEP) meetings for five high school students identified with specific learning disabilities. Specifically, we examine how participants interacted during the IEP meetings and how learning, instruction, and postsecondary transition were discussed. Findings suggest that the IEP document served as the dominant script, or structure, for the IEP meetings. This dominant script established roles for participation and influenced participants’ agency within the meetings. We also highlight instances of disruption when participants exerted agency and went off script, breaking from the institutionalized structure of the meetings.

Precarious everyday agency

Abstract: The concept of agency has been used to bridge the gap between micro- and macro-level analyses in social and feminist studies. Giddens proposed the pair of structure and agency; Bourdieu coined the ...

Structure and agency in development-induced forced migration: the case of Brazil's Belo Monte Dam.

Abstract: This paper examines how structure and agency interact to shape forced migration outcomes Specifically, I ask how structural factors such as compensation policies as well as social, financial, and human capital may either foster or constrain migration aspirations and capabilities I use longitudinal, semi-structured interview data to study forced migration among farmers displaced by the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon Results from baseline interviews indicate that nearly all community members aspired to purchase rural land in the region and maintain livelihoods as cacao farmers or cattle ranchers Constraints limiting the ability to attain aspirations included strict requirements on land titles for properties, delays in receiving compensation, rising land prices, and the lack of power to negotiate for better compensation Despite these constraints, most migrants succeeded in attaining aspirations, as they were able to mobilize resources such as social networks, financial capital, skills, and knowledge These findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between structure and agency within forced migration research I conclude by discussing how the findings may inform resettlement policies for future cases of development- or environment-induced forced migration

Educational Leadership and Pierre Bourdieu

Abstract: Pierre Bourdieu was one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He argued for, and practiced, rigorous and reflexive scholarship, interrogating the inequities and injustices of modern societies. Through a lifetime’s explication of the ways in which schooling both produces and reproduces the status quo, Bourdieu offered a powerful critique and method of analysis of the history of schooling, and of contemporary educational polices and trends. Though frequently used in educational research, Bourdieu’s work has had much less take up in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration. Educational Leadership and Pierre Bourdieu argues that ELMA scholars have much to gain by engaging more thoroughly with his work. The book explains each of the key terms in Bourdieu’s thinking tool kit, showing how the tripartite concepts of field, habitus and capitals offer a way through which to understand the interaction of structure and agency, and the limits on the freedom of an individual – in this case an educational leader – to act. Educational Leadership and Pierre Bourdieu offers an analysis of dominant trends in ELMA research, examining the kinds of questions asked, projects undertaken and methods used. It provides alternative questions and methods based on a Bourdieusian approach, further readings and a range of exemplars of the application of these tools. The book will be of interest to those whose primary focus is the utility of Bourdieu’s social theory.

Between Structure and Agency: Contextualizing School Leaders’ Strategic Responses to Market Pressures

Abstract: School choice is expected to place pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, little research has examined how competition for students actually operates in socially embedded education markets. Economic approaches tend to emphasize individual actors’ choices and agency, an undersocialized perspective, whereas sociological approaches emphasize social structures such as race, class, and institutions over agency, an oversocialized view. In this study, I examine the interplay between structure and agency in education markets to (a) examine how a school’s position in the market hierarchy influences how it is represented and viewed as a rival by network competitors and to (b) explore how a school’s position in the network of competitors influences the possible and actual strategic actions that schools adopt in response to market pressures. Using case studies from New Orleans, I find that school leaders’ positions in the socially constructed market hierarchy and in a social network o...

Can children break the cycle of disadvantage? Structure and agency in the transmission of education across generations

Abstract: Research has shown that parents tend to pass educational advantage or disadvantage on to their children. However, little is known about the extent to which the intergenerational transmission of education involves children’s agency. In this study we drew from two traditions in sociological and social psychological theorizing—the theory of cultural and social reproduction and the theory of human agency—to examine whether agency influences children’s educational performance, and if so, whether this influence can be observed among children across social classes. We used data from the Spanish sample of the Program for International Student Assessment (N = 25,003 15-year-olds). Results indicate that the level of child agency was weakly positively related to social class, that child agency impacted on a child’s educational performance, and that the positive effect of agency on educational performance did not vary by social class. This suggests that strategies to enhance disadvantaged children’s agency may prove useful in reducing social gradients in educational performance. More generally, our findings may ignite a debate about the role that social structure and human agency play in shaping social inequality and mobility.

Energy Transitions and Institutional Change: Between Structure and Agency

Abstract: This first conceptual chapter focuses on the analysis of institutional change and what this can reveal about Germany’s energy transition. The authors begin with a critique of the understanding of structure and agency as defined by Anthony Giddens which has underpinned much transitions research in the past. Reflecting on recent developments in institutional theory, they draw on historical institutionalism, discursive institutionalism and the strategic-relational approach in order to discuss the importance of path dependencies, meaning contexts and strategic or structural selectivities in unpacking issues of agency behind institutional change. These three institutionalist approaches are compared and their explanatory powers for energy transitions illustrated, using the case of a recent remunicipalization process in Hamburg’s energy sector as an exemplar.

From Howard to Abbott: Explaining change in Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa

Abstract: ........................................................................................ 1 Acronyms ...................................................................................... 5 Maps .............................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER I: Introduction ....................................................... 14 I.I Setting the scene: the value of studying Australia’s foreign policy towards Africa ..................................................................................................................................... 14 I.II State of the literature ............................................................................................. 16 I.III Research Question ............................................................................................... 20 I. IV Structure, Agency, and Australia’s changing foreign policy engagement with Africa .......................................................................................................................... 21 I. V Contributions of the study.................................................................................... 24 I.VI The study and its three ‘–ologies’ ....................................................................... 25 I. VII Scope and Delimitations ................................................................................... 40 I. VIII Thesis Structure ............................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER II: Understanding Foreign Policy (change) – A Framework for Analysis ............................................................ 49 II.I What is foreign policy? ......................................................................................... 49 II.II What is foreign policy ‘engagement’? ................................................................. 51 II.III What determines foreign policy? ....................................................................... 56 II.IV A general model of foreign policy change ......................................................... 62 II.V Interpreting change in Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa 19962015 ............................................................................................................................. 67 II.VI Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 81 CHAPTER III: Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa until 1996 ......................................................................... 83 III.I Australia and Africa before the end of World War II .......................................... 83 III.II Australia and Africa after the end of World War II ........................................... 85 III.II.I The Menzies Era 1949-1972: Setting the foundations for Australia’s foreign policy towards Africa .............................................................................................. 85 III.II.II Gough Whitlam 1972-1975: a changing approach ..................................... 95 3 III.II.III Malcolm Fraser 1975-1983: sustaining Whitlam’s changes ................... 102 III.II.IV Bob Hawke and Paul Keating 1983-1996: the end of an era .................. 108 III.III Conclusion....................................................................................................... 115 CHAPTER IV: Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa 1996-2015 ...................................................................... 120 IV.I The Howard Government (March 1996 – November 2007): ‘episodic’ and ‘reactive’ engagement with Africa ............................................................................ 121 IV.I.I Diplomatic, Security, and Economic cooperation ....................................... 122 IV.I.II Development Cooperation ......................................................................... 130 IV.II The Rudd/Gillard Government (November 2007 – September 2013): towards a more strategic and ‘proactive’ engagement with Africa ........................................... 132 IV.II.I Diplomatic, Security, and Economic cooperation ..................................... 133 IV.II.II Development cooperation ......................................................................... 147 IV.III The Abbott Government (September 2013 – September 2015): lack of interest and a return to ‘episodic’ engagement with Africa ................................................... 151 IV.III.I Diplomatic, Security, and Economic cooperation .................................... 151 IV.III.II Development Cooperation ...................................................................... 154 IV.IV Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 156 CHAPTER V: Interpreting change in Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa 1996-2015 ............................. 159 V.I Interpreting change in Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa: diplomatic and security cooperation ......................................................................... 161 V.I.I Diplomatic cooperation ................................................................................ 161 V.I.II The Howard Government ............................................................................ 165 V.I.III The Rudd/Gillard Government .................................................................. 171 V.I.IV The Abbott Government ............................................................................ 182 V.I.II Security cooperation ........................................................................................ 186 V.II Interpreting change in Australia’s foreign policy engagement with Africa: economic and development cooperation ................................................................... 192 V.II.I Economic Cooperation .................................................................................... 192 V.II.II The Howard Government .......................................................................... 193 V.II.III The Rudd/Gillard Government ................................................................. 200 V.II.IV The Abbott Government ........................................................................... 211 V.II.II Development Cooperation ............................................................................. 219

The roles of agency and structure in facilitating the successful transition out of care and into independent living

Abstract: The vulnerability of young people leaving residential care has been widely noted in the literature, prompting research on the process of transitioning out of care and triggering debates between the roles of agency and structure in youth transitions. Care-leaving research and programmes from the West have tended to give primary attention to structural interventions, centred on the notion of ‘corporate parenting’. By contrast, South African research on care-leaving has tended to emphasise the agency of young people in exercising resilience in sub-optimal contexts. This article analyses findings from recent South African care-leaving research on the contributions of agency (particularly resilience at the micro level) and structure (particularly interventions at the macro level) to the successful transition out of care and into independent living. Evidence confirms the importance of considering both agency and structure, as well as the interaction between them.

Re-aligning children's agency and re-socialising children in Childhood Studies

Abstract: In Childhood Studies, in contrast to strands of thinking that have foregrounded a political emphasis on “child-centredness” (e.g. reference to standpoint theory [Alanen, 1994]) and a theoretical emphasis on the re exive agency of children in the context of social structure (James and Prout, 1990; James et al., 1998), there has been a line of thinking that has stressed the distributed, ontologically heterogeneous, and dependent capacities of children (Lee, 2001; Oswell, 2013; Prout, 2005). In the rst line of thinking, children’s agency is often discussed in the context of a sociological problematic concerning agency and structure, often resting on the theoretical premises of Anthony Giddens’ social theory; in the second, agency is often understood as distributed across “actor-networks” or “assemblages” in the context of “post-social” theories derived from Bruno Latour or Gilles Deleuze. In much of the literature in the eld, the distinctions between these two lines of thinking are often not made evident. However, where the differences are made evident, discussion often centres on the distinction between human-centred and post-humanist epistemologies of children’s agency. This chapter will frame these two lines of thinking about children and child- hood in the context of broader shifts in sociological understanding concerning the ontology of agency, the questioning of the scalar attributions of structure (macro) and agency (micro), and a methodological shift of focus from ethnog- raphy and discourse analysis (James and Prout, 1990) to what is often seen as a more “object-centred” focus on devices, descriptions, liveness and invention (Marres, 2012; Back and Puwar, 2012; Lury and Wakeford, 2013). In doing so, the intention is to refocus discussion on the question of children as a complex social collectivity and to offer a line of thinking t for understanding the place of children within an ontologically complex, interconnected, multi-mediated social world.

Embodiment and aging in contemporary physiotherapy

Abstract: Contemporary discourses in the health sciences vary in their treatment of aging bodies and the mind-body relationship, yet our understanding of aging experiences and health care practices can be limited by an overreliance on biomedical or social constructionist approaches alone. This paper offers a conceptual exploration of embodiment as an innovative approach to enhance our understandings of aging bodies and health in physiotherapy practice. Embodiment attends to body and mind, nature and culture, structure and agency, while appreciating differences in aging bodies and health in aging. Conclusions consider embodiment in the practice and disciplinary discourse of contemporary physiotherapy, specifically, considering the ways embodied perspectives can support therapists in their health care practice and relationships with people with aging bodies.

Spatially embedded inequality: Exploring structure, agency, and ethnic minority strategies to navigate organizational opportunity structures

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply a spatial approach to organizational inequality to explore why unequal opportunity structures persist in an organization despite its commitment to diversity and employing highly skilled ethnic minority employees. Design/methodology/approach – The (re)production of inequality is explored by linking research on organizational space with HRM diversity management. Data from an ethnographic study undertaken in a Danish municipal center illustrates how a substructure of inequality is spatially upheld alongside a formal diversity policy. Archer’s distinction between structure and agency informs the analysis of how minority agency not only reproduces but also challenges organizational opportunity structures. Findings – The analysis demonstrates how substructures of inequality stabilize in spatial routines enacted in an ethnic zoning of the workplace and ethnification of job categories. However, the same spatial structures allows for a variety of opposition and conci...

Structure, Culture and Agency: Selected Papers of Margaret Archer

Abstract: Professor Margaret Archer is a leading critical realist and major contemporary social theorist. This edited collection seeks to celebrate the scope and accomplishments of her work, distilling her theoretical and empirical contributions into four sections which capture the essence and trajectory of her research over almost four decades. Long fascinated with the problem of structure and agency, Archer’s work has constituted a decade-long engagement with this perennial issue of social thought. However, in spite of the deep interconnections that unify her body of work, it is rarely treated as a coherent whole. This is doubtless in part due to the unforgiving rigour of her arguments and prose, but also a byproduct of sociology’s ongoing compartmentalisation. This edited collection seeks to address this relative neglect by collating a selection of papers, spanning Archer’s career, which collectively elucidate both the development of her thought and the value that can be found in it as a systematic whole. This book illustrates the empirical origins of her social ontology in her early work on the sociology of education, as well as foregrounding the diverse range of influences that have conditioned her intellectual trajectory: the systems theory of Walter Buckley, the neo-Weberian analysis of Lockwood, the critical realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar and, more recently, her engagement with American pragmatism and the Italian school of relational sociology. What emerges is a series of important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency. Acting to introduce and guide readers through these contributions, this book carries the potential to inform exciting and innovative sociological research.

SME managing director and non-executive director trust relations: The dynamic interplay between structure and agency

Abstract: This article explores the trust relations between managing directors (MDs) and non-executive directors (NEDs) within small- and medium-sized enterprises. Complex mechanisms are revealed within repeated cycles of social interaction that result in the NED changing from an effective agent acting rationally on behalf of the company to an ineffective agent acting subjectively on behalf of the MD. Inherent tensions exist during this change of role and trust relations that threaten the self-esteem of both parties. NEDs being part of a peer network, serving for a fixed term and succession planning are proposed to counter these detrimental effects.

My American Dream: The Interplay Between Structure and Agency in West African Immigrants' Educational Experiences in the United States.

Abstract: This article presents findings of a qualitative, interpretive case study of the experiences of 1.5- and 2nd-generation West African immigrants who self-identify as pursuing the American Dream, defined by them as academic attainment and career success. Employing structuration theory, the authors examine the interplay between structures and agency in participants’ educational and professional decision making. Participants’ perspectives on the American Dream are filled with references to dominant narratives of hard work, economic success, and the power of formal education. At the same time, findings illuminate a conceptual shift in understanding the nature of hard work and personal freedom experienced in pursuit of the American Dream as participants recognized that as African immigrants, they had to work harder to achieve the Dream while highlighting the role and influence of family expectations and schooling structures. Their expanded notions of the Dream include understandings of individual agency, social ...

Structure and Agency in Swedish Municipalities’ Reception of Unaccompanied Minors

Abstract: Children without parents or guardians who leave their home country to start a new life somewhere else are a contemporary and global phenomenon that represents a significant proportion of the migrat ...

Restructuring, Reform and Refraction: Complexities of Response to Imposed Social Change.

Abstract: This paper further develops the concept of ‘refraction’ (Goodson & Rudd 2012; Rudd & Goodson 2014), which we have been seeking to formulate over the last five years. Refraction is conceived of as a conceptual tool intended to support complex and rich methodological and theoretical explorations of educational discourse, systems, policies and practice. Refraction seeks to simultaneously examine structure and agency and the interrelationships between them, whilst also placing historical and contextual influence at the heart of explorations. Hence we have vertical refraction focussing on structure and agency and historical refraction focussing on the changing historical contexts.