To explore how individuals facing societal transformations define their perceived sphere of action and locate meaningful possibilities for action across personal, collective and institutional levels.
Integrates established agency and behavioural perspectives to explore how individuals delimit their own sphere of action and locate meaningful action across different actors and levels.
Retrospective cross-study synthesis of five qualitative studies comprising 292 semi-structured interviews, using thematic re-analysis to identify recurring patterns and variations across different contexts of societal change.
Individuals appear to define a perceived sphere of action based on capacity, expected effectiveness and willingness, while locating meaningful action across personal, collective, organisational and institutional levels.
Proposes an integrative perspective linking established agency and behavioural constructs, introducing perceived sphere of action and, tentatively, agency allocation through a cross-study qualitative synthesis.
Highlights how individuals distribute perceived possibilities for action across personal, collective and institutional levels, with implications for designing policies, organisational responses and change-management initiatives