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AbstractThis article builds on recent accounts of diffuse and complex agentic practices in the global South by drawing on ethnographic data gathered in northwestern Ghana among the Dagaaba. Contemporary feminist discourses and theories, particularly in contexts in the global South, have sought to draw attention to the multifaceted ways in which women exercise agency in these contexts. Practices that in the past were perceived as instruments of women's subordination or as re-inscribing their oppression have been re/interpreted as agentic. Agentic practices are theorized in more fluid terms than the binary pairing of agent/victim debates permit. Dagaaba contexts are deeply pervaded by beliefs in supernatural power forms, and these forces dis/empower certain forms of agentic acts. This article demonstrates that key factors combining with male power to regulate women's exercise of agency are perceived mystical forces. I argue that, in order not to risk missing agency—or rather "misdescribing" it—in the context of Dagaaba and most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where the belief in mystical forces is profoundly pervasive, the role of these power forms as important determinants of the form that agentic practices assume—and more broadly, the way power works—needs critical attention in feminist theorizing.

This article discusses the fandom of Malaysian middle-aged women participating in a fandom of BIGBANG, a South Korean boy band. Fandom is conventionally assumed to target younger audiences, teenagers or young adults but this article showcase that this is not the case and there are fans of all ages. This is not only evident in the BIGBANG fandom but also observed in the Twilight and One Direction fandom. This article studies the agency displayed by these women and how they shape their fandom in respect of their identity as spouses, parents and daughters. I also review how they negotiate their personal relationship with their families, acquaintances and younger fans in the fandom. The patriarchy system, religion and social expectations each play a role in influencing these women's engagement with the fandom. Research on older fans is neither common nor abundantly available, thus this article hopes to contribute to the current literature on fandom.

This research reveals a hidden history of working-class women's lives and agency in industrial East London, 1840 to 1914. "Sweated" industrial women were integral to East London's industrial labour geographies, as demonstrated in the specific trades of bookbinding, upholstery, garment making and tailoring, confectionery and ropemaking, amongst others. Women were ideologically restricted into the sphere of domesticity, which limited their equal access to the labour force and disavowed their public voice. Working-class women developed resilience and feminist resistance to their class exploitation through their local labour geographies. As women learned from the previous generations' resistance, they created and developed conduits of self-expression within the labour movements' platforms. As middle-class women joined working-class women in the labour force, they intersected in a labour movement in which class both differentiated and consolidated people. A prosopography shows that working-class women workers' public manifestation of agency was through trade unionism. Between 1840 and 1914, working-class women's self-expression grew louder. This thesis examines agency through a framework of four pillars of volition, materialist, political and corporeal agency. As working-class women claimed their right to the public sphere, they developed their feminist citizenship from below.

Over the last two decades, while significant consideration is given to women’s participation and representation in formal peacebuilding processes, there is the dearth of research on the grassroots level involvement and contributions of women to peacebuilding processes in post-conflict communities. Utilizing 28 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with women in Bukuru and Gyel communities, this article aims at improving the understandings on the agency of women in building and sustaining peace in polarized post-conflict communities in Plateau State, Nigeria. The article argues that in spite of the global marginalisation of women in formal peace processes, women are actively involved in peacebuilding and use various forms of individual and collective agency to restore harmonious relations, build peace and foster social cohesion in polarized post-conflict communities.