Room for Maneuver, Capacity, and Potency to Act: Rethinking the Notion of Agency
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2025v33n390141Keywords:
Agency, Feminist Theory, Gender Studies, Performativity, SubjectivityAbstract
This article aims to theoretically discuss the concept of agency, as we understand it, in the sense of a capacity to act or room for maneuver. A historical notion in theories inspired by feminist movements, it has recently gained significant notoriety in the field of gender and sexuality studies. In close dialogue with performativity, a new theory of the capacity to act has made it possible to think of ways to construct oneself as a subject by overcoming the dichotomies between domination and resistance. In this view, a construction of the self is privileged in the hybrid of subjection, adaptation, and freedom, where norms are not only contested but also incorporated.
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