Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential. Social structure consists of those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) that determine or limit agents and their decisions. [ 1 ]
Agency is contrasted to objects reacting to natural forces involving only unthinking deterministic processes. In this respect, agency is subtly distinct from the concept of free will, the philosophical doctrine that our choices are not the product of causal chains, but are significantly free or undetermined.
Agency (law), a person acting on behalf of another person; Agency (moral), capacity for making moral judgments; Agency (philosophy), the capacity of an autonomous agent to act, relating to action theory in philosophy; Agency (psychology), the ability to recognize or attribute agency in humans and non-human animals
Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. [1] The structure versus agency debate may be understood as an issue of socialization against autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure.
The concept of agency implies an active organism, one who desires, makes plans, and carries out actions. [5] The sense of agency plays a pivotal role in cognitive development, including the first stage of self-awareness (or pre-theoretical experience of one's own mentality), which scaffolds theory of mind capacities.
A broader definition of the term "government agency" also means the United States federal executive departments that include the President's cabinet-level departments and their sub-units. Examples of these include the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury .
Independent agencies can be distinguished from the federal executive departments and other executive agencies by their structural and functional characteristics. [8] Their officers can be protected from removal by the president, they can be controlled by a board that cannot be appointed all at once, and the board can be required to be bipartisan.
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. News agencies are known for their press releases. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, or news service.