Agency, Structure, and The Transition to Disability: A Case Study with Implications for Life History Research

Abstract

If life history research is ever to truly fulfill the promise of the sociological imagination, it will need to engage insights from agency-structure theory that have hitherto been neglected. Relatively few life history researchers have explicitly interpreted their subject matter in terms of agency-structure theory, and those who do rarely go beyond Giddens' initial formulation to incorporate more recent theoretical developments. This article attempts to fill this gap, offering an exemplar theorized life history that frames an actor's experience in terms of agency-structure theory. More specifically, I examine the life history of a former urban gang member who was shot and paralyzed and subsequently became a world-class wheelchair athlete. I interpret the life history in terms of the iterative, projective, and practical-evaluative agentive processes that were operative—sometimes simultaneously—at different points in time; and show how this individual's adaptation to disability was influenced by enabling structural conditions that facilitated his agentive actions and by prior experiences he was able to transpose to his new circumstances. In doing so, I also indicate how the body is an essential part of social experience and the vehicle through which agency and structure are enacted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Melvin Juette for agreeing to be interviewed for this project, as well as Kent Sandstrom, Larry Neuman, and the editor and the anonymous reviewers of TSQ for their helpful comments and suggestions.

NOTES

Notes

¹ The general distinction between life history and life story is that the latter makes greater use of the informant's first-person narrative (Atkinson 1998; Plummer 2001).

² One would be hard pressed to say that life history research is thriving in the discipline. But the growing sociological interest in narrative and storytelling suggests a receptivity to this line of inquiry (Rosenwald and Ochberg 1992; Maines 1993; Atkinson 1998; Plummer 2001; Berger and Quinney 2005).

³ It is important to reiterate that I am employing agency and structure as generalized theoretical concepts. Although I draw upon a particular discourse within this tradition, my perspective is generally consistent with assumptions underlying other treatments of this matter, for example, Bourdieu's (1977) theory of habitus and field, which Ritzer (1996) views as an alterative yet comparable specification of agency-structure theory.

⁴ According to Sewell (1992), agency entails “an ability to coordinate one's actions with others and against others … and to monitor the simultaneous effects of one's own and others' activities” (p. 21). This conception is thus consistent with interactionists' view of individuals as capable of minded self-reflection. Berger (1995) suggests ways in which interactionist concepts can be used to enhance the use of agency-structure theory in life history research. In this study, I similarly make use of sociological concepts developed outside of the agency-structure tradition (e.g., epiphanies, liminality, rhetorics of self-change, status passages).

⁵ Similarly, Bourdieu (1977) argues that habitus is “transferable from one field to another” (Ritzer 1996:540).

⁶ Denzin (1989b:17) distinguishes four types of epiphanies—cumulative, major, minor, and relived epiphanies.

⁷ I did some minor editing of the transcripts for grammar and clarity (see Coles 1975; Blauner 1987), and gave Melvin the opportunity to make additions and modifications to ensure narrative fidelity to his account.

⁸ Tim Nugent of the University of Illinois was responsible for organizing the first National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in 1949. At that tournament, the participating athletes decided to organize the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, the sport's national governing body, which is responsible for determining the eligibility of participating individuals, standardizing the rules, and organizing competitions.

⁹ A large body of research indicates that participation in sports entails substantial physical and psychological benefits for people with disabilities, including a heightened sense of self-efficacy that spills over into other social pursuits. An extended bibliography of this literature is available upon request from the author.

¹⁰ The full history of the UWW wheelchair basketball program is beyond the scope of this article (see Berger forthcoming). It must suffice here to note that this opportunity for Melvin was the product of both local and national efforts of many dedicated individuals who banded together to promote organized wheelchair basketball as a legitimate avenue of athletic expression for people with disabilities.

¹¹ After a few years' hiatus from international ball, Melvin played on the 2006 U.S. team that won a silver medal in the Gold Cup held in Amsterdam.