agency

Etymology

From Medieval Latin agentia, from Latin agēns (present participle of agere (“to act”)), agentis (cognate with French agence, see also agent).

noun

1. The capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.
   Because structure in this argument means institutions— pregiven norms, values, beliefs, and practices— it is open-textured, incomplete, cannot guarantee its own applications, therefore, all behavior is action, has agency (Garfinkel 1964; Strauss et al. 1963). 2018, Morris Zelditch, Status, Power, and Legitimacy, page 65
2. (sociology, philosophy, psychology) The capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.
   moral agency
   individual agency
   Formally, capitalism performs its fundamental gesture—reappropriation without transformation. This bears on the question of subjective agency because this “reappropriation without transformation” is exactly what agency seeks to avoid; such a process indicates, in fact, that one's agency has failed, that one really had no agency in the first place. 2001, Todd McGowan, The Feminine "No!", SUNY Press, page 105
   Strictly speaking, at the level of personal agency one could say that power is a condition where one is “enabled.” I would contend that this is a condition of personal agency. 2012, Edmund V. Sullivan, A Critical Psychology, Springer Science & Business Media, page 75
   The feeling of being in control of one's body should involve the sense of body-ownership, plus an additional sense of agency. 2013, Andy Clark, Julian Kiverstein, Tillmann Vierkant, Decomposing the Will, Oxford University Press, page 112
3. A medium through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.
4. The office or function of an agent; also, the relationship between a principal and that person's agent.
   authority of agency
5. An establishment engaged in doing business for another; also, the place of business or the district of such an agency.
   As an employment agency you have a responsibility to supply work to the individual agency worker, as well as a service to the client. 2012, Simon Toms, The Impact of the UK Temporary Employment Industry in Assisting Agency Workers since the Year 2000, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 277
6. A department or other administrative unit of a government; also, the office or headquarters of, or the district administered by such unit of government.
   Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
   Central Intelligence Agency