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Where sporting games may be said to epitomize our species' unique agential capacity for playful movement, sports played in nature differ from their equivalent played indoors in that they envelop the human agent within the living physical environment from which our agency originates. In this paper, we draw attention to how sporting sites differ according to origin by pursuing a biosemiotic line of reasoning. Here, the story of a meaningful human life begins with the eukaryotic cell, even though the human subject itself arises much later. As such, the story of nature in relation to our agency, here, in sports, changes too. We present key concepts from biosemiotics, including its continuum life-as-semiotic-agency view, Umwelt, metasemiosis, and semiotic scaffolding to advance our argument that naturogenic sporting sites provide continuity to the macro processes that have generated our semiotic ability to play. Meanwhile, secluded anthropogenic environments constitute yet another discontinuity for the modern sportsperson where the moving body steps into an anthroposemiotic loop and its restricted signscapes from centralized agency. We conclude on the primacy of naturogenic sporting sites as they preserve the quality and complexity of animal ludens' constitutive relations and therefrom semiotic freedom, on which current and future gameplaying depends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Broadly speaking, student voice can be defined as initiatives that involve consultation of, feedback from, and engagement with students regarding their own education. This study's aim was to explore teachers' experiences and perceptions of enacting student voice in primary physical education. Method: Participants included six primary school health and physical education specialist teachers within Victoria, Australia. Data were collected via six rich and detailed one-on-one semistructured interviews. Results: Three main themes include: (a) "same-same but different" highlighting participants' varying conceptualizations and enactment of student voice, (b) "language matters" emphasizing the importance of language used when discussing and implementing student voice, and (c) "barriers and challenges to implementation" capturing participants' experience and limiting factors to the enactment of student voice practices. Discussion/Conclusion: Grounded in education for transformation and patterns of partnership theories, the discussion focuses on the disassociation between teachers' perceived understanding and enactment and the implications for students resulting from the misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research enriches the field's perspective on value and argues that to seriously address inequality during the next 50 years, consumer research must explore processual aspects of value hierarchy and consider its relationship to inequality. Doing so recognizes the duality of structures as embodying outcomes and agency, as well as the need to view value not only as what it is but also as what it does. To begin to address limitations in the literature, we use empirical evidence from an investigation of the cancer care market from 1970 to 2021 to understand how value hierarchy shapes and manifests as inequality. This is conceptualized as: distribution of multilevel resources, consolidation of consumer power, stratification of consumer agency, and (de)credentialization of worthiness. Building on each of these, we discuss a research agenda for future JCR inquiries and introduce "value hierarchy as inequality" as a big-tent issue for consumer research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the paradigmatic assumptions and ideologies that have shaped algorithmic management research. We identify two sets of assumptions: one about the "ontology of algorithms" (which holds that human resource management [HRM] algorithms are non‐human entities with material agency) and one about the "ontology of management" that HRM algorithms afford (which understands algorithmic management as a form of control for maximizing economic/shareholder value). We explain how these core assumptions underpin existing research of HRM algorithms, causing blind spots that hinder new ways of understanding and studying algorithmic management. After identifying and unpacking the assumptions and blind spots, we offer avenues to overcome these blind spots, allowing for future research based on new ideological assumption grounds that will help move algorithmic management scholarship further in significant ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social expectations play a crucial role in shaping dietary practices among women and children. However, despite significant attention to promoting social and behavioral change in nutrition-focused programs and research, the influence of social norms on womens agency in enhancing nutrition practices is often overlooked. In this perspective, we advocate for a paradigm shift by incorporating a norms aware approach. This underscores the importance of recognizing, measuring, and addressing the societal constraints and barriers that women and children encounter in their journey to improved nutrition. Drawing on insights from the United States Agency for International Development-funded Kulawa project in Niger, we highlight the implications of using social norms diagnosis tools to understand the contextual dynamics within child-feeding practices, informing intervention design, and targeted populations. Integrating a norms perspective into nutrition programming and research does not require an overhaul, but rather a nuanced application of understanding of contextual drivers, such as social norms and agency, that have been underemphasized. We delve into the role of the socio-ecologic system, underscore the importance of addressing power imbalances related to gender and social hierarchy, and emphasize that programs targeting norms should aim for community rather than individual-level change. We provide guidance for programs and research integrating a norms perspective, as well as examples of how tools, such as the Social Norms Exploration Tool and Social Norms Analysis Plot framework, can be applied to identify and prioritize social norms, facilitating the design of norms aware programs. Additionally, we highlight the critical role of community engagement and discuss the value of using qualitative and quantitative approaches to document the process and outcomes of social norms research, program design, and implementation. When we recognize the role of social norms in nutrition as a missing ingredient in nutrition research, programming, and social and behavior change strategies, we create opportunities for more effective and contextually relevant research and interventions that address the complexities of enhancing nutrition practices among women and children.

AbstractPurpose:Methods:Result:Conclusions:\nIMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Assistance from artefacts and humans are traditionally viewed as separate, and it is often up to the individual to try to combine the different kinds of assistance to suit their needs and preferences. The purpose of this study was to gain new insights into the co-existence of and synergies between artefactual and human assistance in the everyday lives of persons with physical and cognitive impairments, through exploring and analysing narratives of individuals who have first-hand knowledge and experience. Seven individuals took part in semi-structured interviews, which were then analysed with qualitative content analysis, grounded in cultural-historical activity theory.The participants were active agents with agendas, dreams, and needs, who shaped and made use of many different combinations of human and artefactual assistance, both formal and informal. They did this in ways that suited each person’s preferences and circumstances and were often seen as complementary and synergistical. Flexible assistance could make limited energy resources last throughout the day, while less flexible or not individually tailored assistance was found to be less useful or appreciated. Assistance that was well integrated into a person’s routines could become invisible and make the person feel independent despite severe impairments. This study contributes new knowledge regarding how persons with disabilities utilize and mould artefactual and human assistance according to the activities they engage in as part of everyday life. When synergistical assistance works, different kinds of assistance flow seamlessly into one another and adjustment of plans and improvisations happen in the moment.Assistance needs to be flexible and designed so that persons with disabilities can shape new combinations of human and artefactual assistance in ways that suit their individual preferences and circumstances.There is often more than one way to reach desired outcomes, and adjustments of plans and improvisations in the moment may play important roles.Learning is an integral part of using assistance, be it human or artefactual, and may facilitate different kinds of assistance seamlessly flowing into each other and becoming invisible and valued parts of daily routines.Assistance needs to be flexible and designed so that persons with disabilities can shape new combinations of human and artefactual assistance in ways that suit their individual preferences and circumstances.There is often more than one way to reach desired outcomes, and adjustments of plans and improvisations in the moment may play important roles.Learning is an integral part of using assistance, be it human or artefactual, and may facilitate different kinds of assistance seamlessly flowing into each other and becoming invisible and valued parts of daily routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The last decade has experienced a surge of interventions focused on improving adolescent girls' agency. Yet measuring adolescent girls' agency continues to be a challenge, limiting the ability to track impact. This study addresses this evidence gap by constructing and validating a multidimensional measure of agency among adolescent girls in Ethiopia. Methods: This study utilized cross‐sectional data from 3033 in school adolescent girls aged 10–12 years and 15–17 years and their adult female caregivers collected as part of the Gender and Adolescent: Global Evidence study in 2017–2018 in Ethiopia. This study constructed a measure of agency among the sample and evaluated both known group and convergent validity of the scale. Twenty‐two indicators across three domains (decision‐making, voice, and mobility) were used to characterize adolescent girls' agency. The data was randomly divided into two halves for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses separately. Results: While six factors of agency emerged from the initial exploratory analysis, two factors (decision‐making and mobility factors) defined adolescent girls' agency from the confirmatory factor analysis. Known‐groups validity of the agency scale was confirmed—the scores on the two domains (decision‐making and mobility) and the overall agency scale was higher for older girls compared to younger girls and for girls in urban households compared to those in rural households. Convergent validity of the scale was not confirmed. Conclusions: This study advances adolescent girls' agency measurement by providing a validated multidimensional measure that can be used to support future policy and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes current discussions concerning the so called “replicability crisis” – a notion describing difficulties in attempts to confirm existing research findings by their additional scrutiny or by new empirical studies. We propose interpretation that this “crisis” may be seen as a manifestation of the increasing inconsistency between, on the one hand, the outdated views on a human being and social structures dominating in the academic mainstream across various disciplines, including psychology and sociology, and, on the other hand, the reality of the emerging new stage of societal evolution, neo-structuration, which brings to the forefront individual agency. Our analysis suggests the possibilities for the future inter-disciplinary paradigmatic shift, which implies putting in the center of research not the idea of a constant or predictably developing individual in the context of solid external structures operating in line with a presumably sustainable “progress”. Instead, under increasing neo-structuration, individual agency becomes, simultaneously, a manifestation of the essence of human nature (as cultural psychology argues) and the driving force for societal transformations, including solving most acute social problems, in the concrete historical period. It means a fundamentally new task for social sciences and humanities: to elaborate methodological solutions and theoretical frameworks to systematically comprehend the contextually conditioned human ability to create and transform – and not only to reproduce. Addressing more attention to agency manifestations in digital environment and, in particular, to those congruent to social activism or volunteering, seems especially fruitful for comprehending human activity in the neo-structurated world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the mutually constitutive notions of possible selves and agency, this study illuminates how maintaining a future orientation in doctoral education acts to supply candidates with a pivotal sense of direction and drive their experimentation with disparate pathways to realise their academic career aspirations. In-depth analysis of two longitudinal cases reveals that participants' trajectorial differences were closely linked to their exercise of agency towards different ends and to different extents under the biographical, institutional, local/national, and global conditions and contingencies they engaged with. However, neither was immune to the risk of suffering an unpredictable employment outcome following candidature. While this plight has much to do with the fierce competition inherent to the neoliberal academic job market, findings also underlined its association with the prominent absence of supervisory and programme support along their doctorate. The study concludes with proffering practical implications beneficial to nurturing and supporting candidates' (diverse) career-possible selves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of work in consumer psychology has been devoted to understanding how individuals manage resource discrepancies. This includes tangible resources – such as money, food, and products – as well as intangible resources – such as time, skills, and social relationships. Resource discrepancies can either be positive – as in the case of having substantial wealth – or negative – as in the case of poverty. Several constructs across the behavioral sciences have been introduced to describe how consumers perceive their various resource discrepancies including, but not limited to, power, social status, scarcity, inequality, and social class. However, little guidance is provided to understand when and why these resource‐based constructs can produce both overlapping and opposing consequences. This conceptual article provides a resolution to this issue by introducing an integrative theory that situates these constructs within the same unifying framework based on two fundamental dimensions: high (vs. low) personal control and self‐ (vs. other‐) dependence. Based on this framework, we offer eight testable propositions and develop a research agenda for academics interested in studying resource discrepancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that Midjourney—a generative AI program that transforms text prompts into images—should be understood not as an agent or a tool, but as a new type of artistic medium. We first examine the view of Midjourney as an agent, considering whether it could be seen as an artist or co-author. This perspective proves unsatisfactory, as Midjourney lacks intentionality and mental states. We then explore the notion of Midjourney as a tool, highlighting its unpredictability and the limited fine-grained control users have over its outputs, which sets it apart from traditional artistic tools. We propose that creating images with Midjourney parallels a gardener's interaction with natura naturans—nature's autonomous generative processes. Similarly, Midjourney acts as machina naturans, where users engage with its dynamic recalcitrance to influence, but not fully control, the creative process. This approach presents Midjourney as an artistic medium shaped by its inherent unpredictability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a massive trend of Chinese international PhD graduates returning to China's research-intensive universities that are undergoing systemic reforms and aspire to flourish in the global higher education field. Taking into account this changing academic environment and field-specific mobility patterns, the study examines the case of 14 early career science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) returnees employed in one of such institutions. Informed by a temporal perspective on agency, we present their academic reintegration experiences negotiated on national/local and institutional levels and unfolding in multiple realms of their post-return lives. Findings derive three prominent themes concerning their encounter with Chinese work culture encompassing entrenched and emerging features, embeddedness into local academic communities of exchange, and navigation of transformative possibilities within the institutional framework of career excellence. Importantly, the study underscores that structures internal to the university can profoundly shape the way returnees leverage their cosmopolitan assets and the direction they take in envisioning their transnationally viable career paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on postcolonial, feminist and gendered migration theories and the 'turn to mobility' this article aims to explore the agency of so-called low-skilled Moroccan female marriage migrants in Flanders (Belgium). More precisely, it aims to study how religious temporality plays a role and how it shapes their experiences in a specific context of migration and precariousness. It questions how these women invoke a religious temporality in confronting the uncertainties and difficulties of which motherhood and a precarious residency status are the most challenging and stigmatising. Firstly, focussing on two ethnographic vignettes this article empirically analyses their nonlinear, risky and often undocumented trajectories laying bare a politico-discursive temporality in marriage migration, motherhood and belonging. Secondly, it analyses how exactly these women tend to challenge this bureaucratic temporality. The analyses show that through their active engagement with sabr (patience) and tawakkul (reliance on God) these women become agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agentic women are frequently stereotyped negatively in politics. While public opinion suggests higher levels of egalitarian gender attitudes toward women in politics, these analyses miss important variations in explicit sexism. Using a survey experiment in the Canadian multi-party context, we show that for those reporting high levels of explicit sexism, agentic women are, as potential candidates, disadvantaged compared to similarly agentic men. Given the uneven distribution of sexist attitudes among partisans, these results suggest that gender representation differences between parties can be traced both to party recruitment strategies and the political behavior of party members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in Seligman's tripartite model of agency, the authors developed the 10-item Agency Scale. Using data from three waves (1994–1996, 2004–2006, 2013–2014) of the MIDUS national longitudinal study, results from midlife adults (N = 2,717) supported a three-factor structure, corresponding to self-efficacy, future-minded planning (as a measure of optimism), and imagination. Evidence for measurement invariance, construct validity, and reliability was provided. The three subscales of the Agency Scale uniquely and positively predicted effort, persistence, generativity (as an indicator of innovation), and perceived progress. Supporting Seligman's hypothesis, sequential mediation analyses revealed that effort, persistence, and generativity significantly mediated the self-efficacy-perceived progress, future-minded planning-perceived progress, and imagination-perceived progress relations, respectively. Significant mean differences across three timepoints indicated an overall declining trend in scores of agency (including self-efficacy, future-minded planning, and imagination) and perceived progress. Collectively, these findings provide support for Seligman's tripartite model of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides new perspectives on the transitions of children from military families. It examines the experiences and agency of a group of UK primary‐school Service children who were undergoing far‐reaching transitions while participating in an arts‐based research project. Transitions are conceived here not as events, such as school moves, but as processes of changing, the dialogical interplay between ever‐changing socio‐cultural and physical environments and the psychological work individuals undertake in response to change. This reconceptualisation of transitions shifts attention away from children's resilience, or lack thereof, and towards unique, nuanced understandings of their subjective experiences and priorities. Presenting multimodal pieces created by three children as they explored the question, 'What's it like to be a Service child in this school?', I describe their diverse and agentic responses to their changing circumstances, as they sought to mitigate anticipated and past losses and perceived disadvantage and to use their transitions as positive opportunities for self‐development. Although punctuated by observable moments of change, this transition work happened over an indefinite timescale, highlighting a need for long‐term support informed by understandings of children's agency and priorities. Such support and insight may be achieved through developing spaces for multimodal dialogue with Service children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, in November 2022, necessitated immediate and critical attention from the educational research community. The impact of GenAI in education, though not yet clear, has the potential to be transformative. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on how to integrate GenAI into elementary literacy education. We, as teacher educators, aim to showcase how to prompt ChatGPT to generate high‐quality questions during a read‐aloud. We discuss the easy access teachers have to GenAI tools and stress the pivotal role they have in decision‐making. We encourage teachers to explore, learn, and understand how to work with GenAI tools to get the most out of it and thus facilitate their agency, teaching, and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thousands of husbands placed advertisements in colonial newspapers announcing that their wives had deserted them and rejecting responsibility for their wives' debts. Yet few scholars have studied "runaway wives." This article argues the notices evidenced wives' agency in a sexist and socially conservative eighteenth-century America, agency that took the form of "exit," "voice," and "loyalty," to follow Hirschman's seminal work. The article examines the texts of almost four hundred listings and arbitrates between two explanations of this phenomenon: whether the notices were published to protect husbands financially or to effect common-law self-divorces. The husbands' notices were predominantly acknowledgments of broken marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends the capabilities conception of individuals developed by Davis, understanding capabilities as relationships. I first introduced the main concepts that are useful for this extension, namely those of agency and capabilities. Then, I showed that agency refers to a rational and responsible exercise of capabilities through Ricoeurs analysis of Sens earlier works. I successively developed the concept of capabilities as relationships through the distinction between intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships: in this framework, self-scrutiny and relationality, respectively, become the leading capabilities of these two relationships. From this extension of the capabilities conception of the individual, two concepts arise with a certain strength, namely those of responsibility and relationality. This extension of the capabilities conception of the individual in economics also in terms of interpersonal relationships emphasises that this social conception of the individual is characterised by relationality. Thanks to responsibility and relationality, the capabilities conception of the individual might be applied in fields such as contemporary civil economy and ecological economics. JEL Classifications: B31, B410, B59, Z13 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of global pandemics, increasing geopolitical conflicts, and subsequent restrictions on human mobilities (including tourism), the question of consumer agency in tourism is particularly pressing. Previous scholarship has largely assumed that tourists are free agents in the pursuit of authenticity through increasing mobility. This conceptual research problematizes the lack of conceptualization of agency in tourism. Based on various streams of tourism literature that demonstrated—although did not explicitly discuss—tourist agency in action, we theorize tourist agency as a product of intersectional and institutional forces, accentuated by spatiality and temporality. We further built a parsimonious typology of tourist agency consisting of Unconstrained, Stigmatized, Constrained, and Negotiated agencies. We hope that this conceptual paper fuels further research and acknowledgment of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of homelessness in Europe has attracted increasing interest of late due to the rise in the number of homeless people and variations in their characteristics. This qualitative research explores the potential of Sen’s Capability Approach to deepen our understanding of the recovery processes of individuals who have experienced homelessness. Through a case study, the representation developed by Robeyns is used to examine the experiences of 19 individuals. Data collection involved workshops and interviews across different life stages, analysing participants’ goals, barriers, and achievements in relation to homelessness. Results show that while housing provides stability and confidence, personal preferences shape their views on well-being, such as prioritizing relationship employment or mental health. The study emphasizes the importance of recognizing the identities and agency of homeless individuals while underscoring the complexities of analysing agency within homelessness pathways, advocating for further exploration of its role in overcoming homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalization of higher education (HE) has increasingly been a subject of interest among scholars, due to developments in the field, such as increased student and staff mobility, inter‐university research and teaching partnerships, and rapid technological advancements. Internationalization efforts have mainly focused on the recruitment of international students and staff to universities in the Global North, the establishment of satellite campuses overseas and research collaborations. To compete on a more even footing, countries in the Global South have increasingly invested in their HE systems and actively promoted themselves as international destinations in this changing global landscape. In this paper, we discuss the strategies and limitations of internationalization at a distance (IaD) with a specific focus on Tanzania. As an emerging destination for international students, the country's expanding HE sector is positioning itself as a global and competitive international destination through diverse efforts such as virtual mobility. This paper draws on interviews with key staff from an open and distance‐learning university in Tanzania to examine and theorize the challenges relating to the provision of online distance learning (ODL) to non‐mobile international students. The theoretical lens is informed by the capabilities approach and ideas of conversion factors and agency. The paper looks beyond existing limitations and proposes the idea of a responsive agency that draws on international collaborations as a way of overcoming contextual challenges through pooling and sharing resources where they exist. In this way, institutions are not independent of their affiliation with others, they belong to a community. This broadens the practice of internationalization to fostering supportive collaboration aimed at improving access to quality international HE. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Rising technology‐supported activities have created new opportunities for universities internationalization. Education plays a key role in intercultural understanding. Internationalization of educational research and services improve quality by requiring respective higher education institutions improve academic standards. What this paper adds Bring together the concepts of capabilities and third space in IaD. IaD opportunities are yet to be fully tapped by both higher education institutions and various government policies. The third space enables hybridity, culture translation and the emergence of new forms of identity. Implications for practice and/or policy To engage and sustain IaD universities must have reliable ICT infrastructure and staff with requisite skills to cope with rapid technological advancement. Widening participation to those who are excluded from conventional, campus‐based universities is critical to ensure achievement of SDG 4. What is already known about this topic Rising technology‐supported activities have created new opportunities for universities internationalization. Education plays a key role in intercultural understanding. Internationalization of educational research and services improve quality by requiring respective higher education institutions improve academic standards. What this paper adds Bring together the concepts of capabilities and third space in IaD. IaD opportunities are yet to be fully tapped by both higher education institutions and various government policies. The third space enables hybridity, culture translation and the emergence of new forms of identity. Implications for practice and/or policy To engage and sustain IaD universities must have reliable ICT infrastructure and staff with requisite skills to cope with rapid technological advancement. Widening participation to those who are excluded from conventional, campus‐based universities is critical to ensure achievement of SDG 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in international higher education, this paper explores the divergence and convergence of the transnational and the transcultural, two widely applied approaches to dynamic processes and phenomena across countries and cultures. As their theoretical foundations, analytical frameworks and discourses are not always fully established in studies of international higher education, the transnational and transcultural approaches are sometimes used interchangeably or in conjunction, without sufficient clarification of their meanings and associations. The inadequate application of these two approaches puts studies that attempt to transcend countries and cultures at risk of reinforcing binary opposites. To address these issues and beyond, this paper begins by reviewing the genealogies of these two ‘trans’ approaches, before focusing on each of their key concepts – transnationality and transculturality. It then explores the convergence of transnationality and transculturality across three major topics in international higher education: mobility, agency and identity, which are discussed in one of the border-crossing contexts, namely the life and experiences of international students. Following this, the paper extends the discussion to a broader scope and provides an alternative analytical framework that embodies the convergence of transnationality and transculturality in the interrelated topics of mobility, agency and identity. This paper concludes by summarising the differences and connections between these two ‘trans’ approaches and their implications for studies of international higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communion and agency are two essential dimensions for understanding personality traits. This study comprised 49 in-depth interviews and three focus groups with experienced social workers in China to address the following research questions: (1) What is the orientation of Chinese social workers towards communion and agency? (2) What challenges do they encounter in their daily practice? (3) How do they interpret and utilize agency in coping with these challenges? The findings revealed three main themes: (a) Participants demonstrated a clear preference for communion over agency, reflecting a strong orientation towards social concern; (b) The professional challenges faced by participants varied significantly across career stages, with distinct requirements for agency at each stage; and (c) Participants' understanding of agency was primarily rooted in professional competence. At different career stages, participants displayed varying levels of professional competence and agency, both of which were essential for addressing social concerns and developing strategies for long-term professional survival. The study suggests that social workers need to balance social concerns with individual development, view social work rationally as an ordinary job, and focus on enhancing both their professional competence and personal agency to achieve their aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of industrial parks in Ethiopia’s major cities drew a large number of young migrant workers from rural villages. The majority of these first-generation industrial labour migrants are young women seeking industrial work, independence, and a better urban life. Drawing on fieldwork in two foreign garment companies located in the Bole Lemi Industrial Park (BLIP) on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this paper examines the socio-economic factors influencing young rural women’s agency and aspirations to migrate to the city as industrial workers. Industrial parks become a space where the economic goals of foreign firms who have relocated their factories to increase profits by utilising a large pool of ‘untapped’ labour force intersect with the socio-economic aspirations of young rural labour migrants who have moved to urban areas. These labour migrants have moved to urban areas in search of a better life, escaping from rural poverty and patriarchy, culminating in the feminisation of factory work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]