Understanding Agency in Collective Action Export

@article{citeulike:1682771, abstract = {Participatory approaches to natural resource management encompass ideas about the desirability of citizens actively engaging in the institutions, policies and discourses that shape their access to resources. Underpinning such approaches are assumptions about the nature of human agency. Purposive individual action is seen as instrumentally desirable as well as potentially radical and transformatory. Through participation in collective resource management it is claimed that people can re-negotiate norms, challenge inequalities, claim their rights and extend their access. This paper draws on insights from theories of structuration, governmentality and gendered empowerment to explore understandings of how individual human agency shapes and is shaped by social relationships and institutions. It outlines six factors that constrain and enable the exercise of agency for different people; cosmologies, complex individual identities, the unequal interdependence of livelihoods, structure and voice, embodiment and emotionality. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications for research and development interventions.}, author = {Cleaver, Frances}, citeulike-article-id = {1682771}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649880701371067}, doi = {10.1080/14649880701371067}, journal = {Journal of Human Development}, keywords = {agency, collective\_capability, participation, partnership}, number = {2}, pages = {223--244}, posted-at = {2007-09-21 16:36:26}, priority = {5}, publisher = {Routledge}, title = {Understanding Agency in Collective Action}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649880701371067}, volume = {8}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1682771 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1682771 N2 - Participatory approaches to natural resource management encompass ideas about the desirability of citizens actively engaging in the institutions, policies and discourses that shape their access to resources. Underpinning such approaches are assumptions about the nature of human agency. Purposive individual action is seen as instrumentally desirable as well as potentially radical and transformatory. Through participation in collective resource management it is claimed that people can re-negotiate norms, challenge inequalities, claim their rights and extend their access. This paper draws on insights from theories of structuration, governmentality and gendered empowerment to explore understandings of how individual human agency shapes and is shaped by social relationships and institutions. It outlines six factors that constrain and enable the exercise of agency for different people; cosmologies, complex individual identities, the unequal interdependence of livelihoods, structure and voice, embodiment and emotionality. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications for research and development interventions. IS - 2 JF - Journal of Human Development EP - 244 TI - Understanding Agency in Collective Action PB - Routledge VL - 8 SP - 223 KW - agency KW - collective_capability KW - participation KW - partnership AU - Cleaver, Frances PY - 2007/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649880701371067 ER -