Agency, modernity and social policy

The focus of this article is upon the recent revival of interest in human a gency within both sociological and social policy debates. There is a striki ng resonance between the increasing attention paid to individual behaviour within normative debates about welfare and the concern of some sociologists with the moral and ethical dilemmas that confront the individual in contem porary society. These two sets of arguments are not compatible. Indeed the analyses they present are contradictory. Moralists such as Etzioni, Field a nd Mead share a belief in the need to restructure welfare in ways that enco urage and reward responsible behaviour. In contrast, sociologists such as B auman, Beck and Giddens suggest that such endeavours could prove to be both futile and dangerous. Attempts to address issues of agency face formidable obstacles and arouse g enuine fears that they will serve to endorse a punitive and atavistic indiv idualism, It is these fears, however, which have constrained and confined t he debate about welfare in the post-war years. The revival of agency create s opportunities for a social science which is more sensitive to the activit ies of poor people whilst reflecting more fully the difference and diversit y which characterises contemporary British society.