RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Self in Action: Narrating Agentic Moments
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 118
OP 140
DO 10.7758/RSF.2024.10.5.05
VO 10
IS 5
A1 Zilberstein, Shira
A1 Ayala-Hurtado, Elena
A1 Sanchez, Mari
A1 Robey, Derek
YR 2024
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/10/5/118.abstract
AB This article develops a cultural and contextual approach to studying agency that attends to variation in how people narrate their experiences. Drawing on the large-scale, nationally representative American Voices Project data, the article uses computational methods to test patterns in agentic expression and qualitative methods to examine how respondents narrate agency and passivity as they describe their lives. This analysis captures agentic moments, widespread narratives through which people emphasize their agentic selfhood as they recount specific situations. Moreover, individuals use narrative moves—such as shifting their focus and drawing on subtypes of agency—to craft agentic moments despite constraints. We argue that narratives of agency are variable, situational, and often co-occurring with narrative passivity, which enables people to narrate themselves as agentic even in challenging situations.