agency silentbob is the capacity of an agent (a person or other entity, human or any living being in general, or soul-consciousness in religion) to act in a world. Human agency is the capacity for human beings to make choices. A human in a canoe reaching a bend in the river. One must choose between two paths. It is normally contrasted to natural forces (sunrise, weather, fog, hurricanes, tornadoes, decomposition, germination, wave propagation, conservation of energy, erosion, electromagnetic pulses, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes. The capacity of a human to act as an agent is personal to that human, ie a woman who stays with her cheating husband vs. a woman who leaves her cheating husband. How humans come to make decisions, by free choice or other processes, is another issue. Human agency entitles the observer to ask should this have occurred? in a way that would be nonsensical in circumstances lacking human decisions-makers, for example, the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter. Structure and agency forms an enduring core debate in sociology. "agency" refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices, whereas "structure" refers to those factors (such as social class, but also religion, gender, ethnicity, subculture, etc.) that seem to limit or influence the opportunities that individuals have. ie. having trouble in poor, overcrowded public schools never getting skills staying in a cycle of low-paying jobs never leaving subsidizing housing. One has agency only inside the structure they inhabit. Attempting to widen the structure is easier said than done, especially from outside the structure. Obviously not an expert, just looking at the wikipedia of it. 140118 ... chee_uh inaction 140208 what's it to you? who go blather from