eprintid: 1471663 rev_number: 21 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/01/47/16/63 datestamp: 2015-11-19 12:37:28 lastmod: 2020-06-10 17:10:30 status_changed: 2015-11-19 12:37:28 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Maxwell, C creators_name: Aggleton, P title: Bodies and Agentic Practice in Young Women's Sexual and Intimate Relationships ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: A01 divisions: B16 divisions: B14 keywords: agency, power, sex, the body, young women note: Copyright © 2012 by BSA Publications Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the terms of the SAGE Open Access Archiving Policy (https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-green-route-%E2%80%93-open-access-archiving-policy). abstract: This article contributes to theorizations of agency through a focus on how understandings of power within young women’s sexual and intimate relationships connect with their descriptions of feeling, reacting and sensuous bodies, to suggest why and how agentic practice takes place. Drawing on the narratives of 54 young women aged 16–18 years in one secondary school in England, findings concur with other literature which suggests that sensations experienced on or within the body can instigate (agentic) practice. Significantly, however, both physical and verbal practices are drawn on during agentic moments. Young women who discursively position themselves as ‘powerful’ integrate their bodies within such an understanding, using this integration to shore up the possibilities for agentic practice. Moving away from an understanding of practice as ‘accommodating’ and/or ‘resisting’ norms and inequalities, this article identifies four strategies described by the young women (assertive, refusing, proactive and interrogative) for facilitating more sustained agency. date: 2012-04 date_type: published official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511419192 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1058129 doi: 10.1177/0038038511419192 lyricists_name: Maxwell, Claire lyricists_id: CMAXW74 actors_name: Maxwell, Claire actors_id: CMAXW74 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Sociology volume: 46 number: 2 pagerange: 306-321 issn: 1469-8684 citation: Maxwell, C; Aggleton, P; (2012) Bodies and Agentic Practice in Young Women's Sexual and Intimate Relationships. Sociology , 46 (2) pp. 306-321. 10.1177/0038038511419192 <https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511419192>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1471663/1/Maxwell%20%26%20Aggleton%20agentic%20bodies%20paper%20FINAL%20copy.pdf