Structure and agency

About: Structure and agency is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1265 publications have been published within this topic receiving 63660 citations.

Refugees, sexual violence, and armed conflict: the nuances between victims and agents 1

Abstract: The examination of forced migration of political refugees from sexual violence in armed conflict offers a unique vantage point for exploring the relationship between structure and agency. While it is significant to acknowledge the lack of autonomy accessible to political refugees, simultaneously, it is problematic to assume that their actions do not qualify as agency. I argue that it is possible on one hand to address the lack of agency related to the imposed structure, while on the other hand, to theorize marginalized actors' form of agency based on their ability to actively negotiate forced conditions in order to secure their own and their families' safety. This theoretical shift in re-conceptualizing agency from the perspective of political refugees reveals that despite, international human rights efforts, in practice these policies may deter and marginalize refugees. Inherent gender bias and exclusion in human rights agendas serve to undermine the rights and security of refugees. Incorporating refugees' experiences negotiating conditions of violence facilitates the ability to critique and transform Western perspectives of human rights, particularly deterrent measures and individual-responsibility policies that require refugees to provide justification of their rights to security.

Coteaching social education: An oasis in changing times

Abstract: With the introduction and continued steady roll-out of the Australian Curriculum, teaching Social Education in 21st Century Australia has become increasingly challenging. This article explores how two teacher-educators tackled the challenge when developing a new Social Education course at a Queensland university using the strategy of coteaching. During the case study, data were collated from cogenerative dialogues, pre-service teacher questionnaires, and reflective journals. The data were subsequently explored using concepts from cultural sociology such as capital (Bourdieu, 1977) and agency and structure (Sewell, 1992). This paper examines how coteaching afforded the teacher-educators a vehicle to develop innovative curriculum and model ways to create a productive learning environment that reflected the philosophy of Social Education. It therefore speaks to higher-education institutions and schools about ways for navigating the present educational milieu through the adoption of collaborative strategies based on ethical relations that promote shared decision-making and reflexive practices.

The accountability of Higher Education Institutional Leaders

Abstract: This thesis addresses the research question ‘What are the accountability responsibilities and obligations for higher education institutional leaders? In this process, three tensions were identified for those leaders: first, the balancing of accountability responsibilities and obligations in the decision-making process; second, how stakeholders affect the balance between obligations and responsibilities; and third, how decisions based upon the balance between obligations and responsibilities have been affected by different stakeholders which then affect the stakeholders in turn. It was argued from evidence provided by twelve institutional leaders from eight institutions that policy changes affecting institutional funding and financial maintenance can lead institutional leaders, in response to both policy drivers and their accountability, to take institutional action through their agency that can lead to challenges to the academic identity of the staff working in their institutions. A theoretical framework drawing upon theories related to structure and agency was used as a lens to understand responses to questions relating to managerialism, new managerialism, new public management, accountability and academic identity. Halstead’s models of Accountability were used to analyse several reasons for accountability that were identified through this research. Those reasons for accountability were identified as being mostly legal, professional and moral, with both internal and external social dimensions. A typology of higher education institutional leaders was developed so as to better understand the relationship between leaders and their stakeholders. The two key findings were: the accountability of institutional leaders over time contributes to the construction and reconstruction of the academic identity of their academic staff; and how the accountability of institutional leaders is manifested and how that accountability affects the academic identity of their staff is dependent upon the political, institutional and personal contexts of those institutional leaders.

Social Innovation in Refugee Support: Investigating Prerequisites Towards a Conceptual Framework

Abstract: This paper investigates the required elements in the advancement of social innovation (SI) produced by entrepreneurial organisations. These efforts are to assist the establishment of a new conceptual framework including the voices of those, most vulnerable and ferociously impacted by not only local but also global crisis. Qualitative data by an organisation which educates social workers and refugees fuel the concept of social innovation by pointing to the interplay of structure and agency as well as social issues and impact on economy. Our existing knowledge on the role of social enterprises and refugee support through social innovative services are limited. Social innovation is closely linked to social entrepreneurship (SE) in practice and in literature. SE in context of refugee support is a concept currently gaining attention. Social innovation could be equally relevant in this regard. SI is a broad, versatile term, believed to hold a yet fully to be discovered potential. While SI is not a new revelation it is, however contested as a term and is yet to be fully understood, defined and diffused for it to be exploited at its maximum potential.