Agency and voice enabled

Full description

This outcome is about how engagement in cultural activity can contribute to an individual’s agency and voice in the community. By agency and voice, we mean the ability and freedom an individual has to express their opinions (about the world)in public and act on those opinions. To do this an individual should be confident that it is safe to express their opinions, their voice will be heard, and their ideas are welcomed. Having agency and voice is important for civic engagement as people are more likely to be involved if they feel they can influence change.

Theory underpinning this outcome

Agency can be described as having the freedom to act deliberately, independently and with choice (Lister, 2004). Having agency and voice is important for civic engagement as believing that your voice and actions can effect community change is a factor in people’s participation in civic action (Watts & Guessous, 2006). Young people are more likely to be politically involved and engaged in the community if they believe that they can influence change (Hope & Jagers, 2014; Leath & Chavous, 2017). This can also have an effect on the individual wellbeing with civic engagement linked to greater self-esteem and social skills (Sherrod, Torney‐Purta, & Flanagan, 2010;) as well as encouraging feelings of belonging (Flanagan & Levine, 2010). Programs designed to promote agency in young girls in sub-Saharan Africa have shown that providing safe spaces for girls to express their opinions, take risks and promote their own interests have resulted in increased well-being (Dettori & Rao Gupta, 2018)

Evidence that this outcome occurs

Young adults who had intensive arts experiences in high school are more likely to show civic-minded behavior than young adults who did not. They take an interest in current affairs, as evidenced by comparatively high levels of volunteering, voting, and engagement with local or school politics. In many cases, this difference appears in both low and high-SES groups (Catterill, 2012).

Respondents who reported both creative and attendance based arts activity were six times as likely to do volunteer or charity work in their community, although this analysis does not explain causality (National Endowment for the Arts, 2008).