The Self in Action: Narrating Agentic Moments

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• agency
• passivity
• narratives
• inequality