“Transformative agency” as an object of sociological analysis: Contemporary discussions and the role of education

Abstract

Negative trends of the global social-economic development enhanced by the covid-19 pandemic explain the theoretical and practical relevance of the study of perspectives for structural transformations and their possible sources. In education, this means the need to improve the existing models of institutional practice and to contribute to the development of agency that would support positive transformations in all domains of social life. The scientific attention to agency and its transformative potential in relation to structures is still limited compared to the issues of structures reproduction. The so-called new institutionalists in sociology (including primarily J.W. Meyer and his followers) provide a promising basis for new theoretical models and empirical studies of the content, factors and effects of transformative agency. Meyers core idea is that social structures can both suppress and support the initiative formation of new social entities and the corresponding new values and modes of action. Further research in education should refer to the concepts of institutional entrepreneurship, institutional work and expanded actorhood, when using the proposed theoretical framework to empirically study (1) globally and nationally promoted initiatives in entrepreneurship education in universities, and (2) processes of transformation of institutional contexts in education under the continuing global pandemic with an emphasis on the proactive role of students.

Keywords

• structure-agency
• trends of social-economic development
• destructuration
• transformative agency
• new institutionalism
• institutional work
• institutional entrepreneurship