Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T17:20:18.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Understanding the exercise of agency within structural inequality: the case of personal debt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Michael Orton
Michael Orton*
Affiliation:
Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article contributes to debates about agency (meaning the behaviour of individuals) and structure, by drawing on empirical research into personal debt. Consideration of debt allows for debate about agency and structure beyond the narrow confines of welfare, and for the examination of agency in relation to citizens at different points in the broader socio-economic structure, not solely poor people. Based on the research findings, themselves grounded in interviewees' experience, the question of why two people in the same material circumstances will have different experiences becomes reframed as why two people whose exercise of agency is the same, face very different outcomes? It is argued that while the research supports a ‘both-and’ rather than ‘either-or’ approach to understanding agency and structure, a ‘both-and’ approach still does not fully capture the experience of interviewees. The key point is that the exercise of agency is overlaid onto structural inequality, and it is understanding the exercise of ‘agency within structure’ that is critical.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 487 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balmer, N., Pleasence, P., Buck, A. and Walker, H. C. (2005), ‘Worried sick: the experience of debt problems and their relationship with health, illness and disability’, Social Policy and Society, 5, 1, 39–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Z. (1997), Postmodernity and Its Discontents, New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Beck, U. (1992), Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, London: Sage.Google Scholar
BERR (2007), Tackling Over-Indebtedness: Annual Report 2007, London: BERR.Google Scholar
Berthoud, R. and Kempson, E. (1992), Credit and Debt: The PSI Report, London: Policy Studies Institute.Google Scholar
Brewer, M., Goodman, A., Muriel, A. and Sibieta, L. (2007), Poverty and Inequality in Britain: 2007, London: IFS.Google Scholar
Buck, A., Pleasance, P. and Balmer, N. (2008), ‘Do citizens know how to deal with legal issues? Some empirical insights’, Journal of Social Policy, 37, 4, 661–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, R. G. (1991), In the Field, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cook, D. (1989), Rich Law, Poor Law: Different Responses to Tax and Supplementary Benefit Fraud, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Deacon, A. (2002), ‘Echoes of Sir Keith? New Labour and the cycle of disadvantage’, Benefits, 10, 3, 179–84.Google Scholar
Deacon, A. (2004), ‘Different interpretations of agency within welfare debates’, Social Policy and Society, 3, 4, 447–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deacon, A. (2005), ‘An ethic of mutual responsibility? Toward a fuller justification for conditionality in welfare’, in Mead, L. and Beem, C. (eds.), Welfare Reform and Political Theory, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Deacon, A. and Mann, K. (1999), ‘Agency, modernity and social policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 28, 3, 413–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doble, M. (2000), ‘A regulatory policy for self-disconnection: an examination of the reasons for and implications of pre-payment meter stoppages’, Policy Studies, 21, 3, 229–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dominy, N. and Kempson, E. (2003), Can't Pay or Won't Pay, DCA Research Series 4/03, London: Lord Chancellor's Department.Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. (2000), Welfare Rights and Responsibilities, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, S. (2003), In Too Deep, London: Citizens Advice.Google Scholar
Etzioni, A. (1997), The New Golden Rule, London: Profile Books.Google Scholar
Field, F. (1995), Making Welfare Work, London: Institute of Community Studies.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1994), Beyond Left and Right, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Grover, C. (2007), ‘The Freud Report on the future of welfare to work: some critical reflections’, Critical Social Policy, 27, 4, 534–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbert, A. and Kempson, E. (1995), Water Debt and Disconnection, London: Policy Studies Institute.Google Scholar
Hoggett, P. (2001), ‘Agency, rationality and social policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 30, 1, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jencks, C. (1994), The Homeless, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kempson, E., McKay, S. and Willitts, K. (2004), Characteristics of Families in Debt and the Nature of Indebtedness, London: DWP.Google Scholar
Le Grand, J. (1997), ‘Knights, knaves or pawns? Human behaviour and social policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 26, 2, 149–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Grand, J. (2003), Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy: Of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, R. (2004), Poverty, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
McKay, S. (2004), ‘Rising levels of household debt – how concerned should we be?’, Benefits, 12, 3, 199–201.Google Scholar
Mead, L. (1986), Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship, New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mead, L. (ed.) (1997), The New Paternalism, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Mead, L. (2004), Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin, Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, C. (1984), Losing Ground, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Murray, C. (1990), The Emerging British Underclass, London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Orton, M. (2004), ‘Irresponsible citizens? New Labour, citizenship and the case of non-payment of local taxation’, Critical Social Policy, 24, 4, 504–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orton, M. (2006), Struggling to Pay Council Tax: A New Perspective on the Debate about Local Taxation, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1988), ‘Indebtedness’, in Walker, R. and Parker, G. (eds.), Money Matters, London: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Public Legal Education and Support Task Force (2007), Developing Capable Citizens: The Role of Public Legal Education, London: Public Legal Education Task Force.Google Scholar
Rock, P. (1973), Making People Pay, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ritchie, J., Spencer, L. and O'Connor, W. (2003), ‘Carrying out qualitative analysis’, in Ritchie, J. and Lewis, J. (eds.), Qualitative Research Practice, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Summers, B., Read, D. and Fylan, F. (2005), Literature in the Areas of Behavioural Economics and Psychology Relevant to the Understanding of an Individual's Propensity to Engage with Their Creditors, London: Department for Constitutional Affairs.Google Scholar
Taylor Gooby, P. (2008), ‘Assumptive worlds and images of agency: academic social policy in the twenty-first century?’, Social Policy and Society, 7, 3, 268–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turley, C. and White, C. (2007), Assessing the Impact of Advice for People with Debt Problems: Final Report, London: Legal Services Research Centre.Google Scholar
Welshman, J. (2004), ‘The unknown Titmuss’, Journal of Social Policy, 33, 2, 225–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, F. and Popay, J. (1999), ‘Balancing polarities: developing a new framework for welfare research’, in Williams, F., Popay, J. and Oakely, A. (eds.), Welfare Research: A Critical Review, London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Williams, F., Popay, J. and Oakley, A. (1999), ‘Changing paradigms of welfare’, in Williams, F., Popay, J. and Oakley, A. (eds.), Welfare Research: A Critical Review, London: UCL Press.Google Scholar