Agency
Agency means the capacity to act, that is, people’s ability to help shape their future. It depends on structures, resources and allies. What a person can do is decided in interplay with others, which is why agency is seen as relational and collective. In futures studies it connects thinking about futures with acting in the present.
Foundational are Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Mische with “What Is Agency?” (1998) and Amartya Sen with “Development as Freedom” (1999).
For Jonas Drechsel, the Missionswerkstatt and the youngk collective are attempts to strengthen agency in practice. People need self-efficacy to help shape the future: sensing, experiencing, thinking along, joining in. A voice from the Missionswerkstatt: “Series like this are valuable because they give me the feeling that I can make a difference as an individual.” In 2025 one of the sessions took place at Halle rollt e.V.
Guiding questions
- Who can do what here, and who is missing from the table?
- Which structure would make the next step easier?
- What exactly will you start with tomorrow?