Disentangling the ‘capacity to act': variegated resources of individuals exerting change agency

Abstract

In recent decades, attention to the role of actors in regional development has shifted from the role of ‘formal and collective’ actors to the role of individuals in change agency. In doing so, individuals mobilize their capacity to act, which comprises the total volume of resources accumulated over the course of their life. However, there is a lack of studies focusing on how such capacity is then mobilized for change agency. Therefore, this study seeks to reveal the patterns of how selected agents have used their capacity for change agency and how this is implemented in the specific spatio-temporal setting of an old industrial region. Based on the results of 64 semi-structured interviews conducted with agents of change and local informants in four old industrial towns in Czechia, we identified five basic types of how resources are combined and used during the implementation of change agency – change agencies driven by embodied cultural capital, by bonding social capital, by economic capital, with support from public institutions and those accelerated by symbolic capital.