Agency as capabilities: Ukrainian women's narratives of social change and mobility

The article argues for the usefulness of the capability approach in understanding agency in situations of social change. It develops the notion of agency as a continuum of capabilities. Agency defined in this way comprises of various stages of resistance, action, reception and adaptation and involves different capabilities intrinsic to individual well-being, including mobility. Agency as a continuum of capabilities accounts for the element of chance inherent in situations where habits and routines cannot guide action in meaningful ways. It also grasps the new forms of action needed in situations of social change better than definitions of agency that emphasise deliberation and reflexivity. The article illustrates this re-conceptualisation of agency through a close-reading and follow-up of the lives of three Ukrainian women who recall post-Soviet 'transition', migration to Italy and their trajectories into, and out of, domestic work.