Meaning & use
taking agency
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Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
The act of deciding for yourself and acting on your own choices instead of waiting for others to direct you.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase: 'Taking agency is hard at first.' It can also follow 'be' as an -ing form: 'She is taking agency in this project.'
Patterns
- taking agency in something
- taking agency over something
- taking agency in doing something
After years of drifting between jobs, he started taking agency and applied for training he actually wanted.
Taking agency in your own learning means asking questions rather than waiting to be told what to do.
The workshop encouraged young people to see themselves as capable of taking agency in their communities.
phrasefixed phraseformal
The process of a group gaining the power and confidence to shape its own future.
Grammar: Often used with groups or communities as the subject or object: 'The community is taking agency.'
Patterns
- a community taking agency
- taking agency over resources
- taking agency back
The documentary shows a village taking agency over its water supply after years of neglect.
Historians describe workers taking agency through unions in the early twentieth century.
For many activists, taking agency means deciding what happens locally instead of accepting outside plans.
Common combinations
- taking agency over your life
- After the divorce, she talked about taking agency over her life again.
- taking agency in decision-making
- Teachers were praised for taking agency in decision-making at the school.
- a sense of taking agency
- Volunteering gave him a sense of taking agency that he had never felt before.
- start taking agency
- You can start taking agency by writing down what you want to change.
- taking agency seriously
- The report argues that companies are not taking agency seriously when they ignore staff ideas.
- taking agency for yourself
- Taking agency for yourself does not mean refusing all help from others.
Synonyms and how they differ
- taking control
- More direct and everyday; it stresses power over a situation, while 'taking agency' stresses your own choice and ability to act.
- self-determination
- A more formal, often political term for a person or group deciding its own fate.
- initiative
- Focuses on being the first to act rather than on the wider sense of directing your own life.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: taking agency or taking action?
taking agency vs taking action
'Taking action' means doing something practical about a problem; 'taking agency' is about who decides and directs, not just about acting.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'taking agency' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Taking agency' is followed by 'over' or 'in' plus the area of life concerned, so 'over her career choices' fits. Option 0 and 3 treat it as a verb that takes a direct object, which it does not, and option 2 uses it as if it meant moving fast.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “taking agency”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.