Agency = The ability to make independent choices
Are we always in control of our actions? – Sense of agency refers to the way we feel in control of our actions. Vince Polito is investigating how and why these changes in sense of agency occur. He has developed ways of studying different examples in a unified way, and developed a new theory of the common causes and effects of agency change.
In allowing ourselves to become defined by consumption, we have surrendered a large part of the personal agency that was once the stated hallmark of liberal democracy. And that change is profound: in the parlance of politics it has become commonplace these days to refer to the public as ‘consumers’. To call them ‘citizens’ would seem decidedly old-world.
– Antony Funnell, President Kennedy’s topper: Reclaiming agency and why it’s important