Age and agency: Time work across the life course

Abstract

Scholars have observed growing variability in life course transitions, such as entry into a full-time job. Life course theorists use the concept of agency to account for increasing diversity and unpredictability in developmental trajectories. In so doing, they presume that agency can only be a source of heterogeneity. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 406 people from all walks of life, I examine a form of temporal agency or ‘time work’ – that is, efforts to modify one’s own experience of time or that of others. The findings suggest that agency does not operate in the way life course theorists envision.