Shrinking space, expanding agency: Introducing the thematic issue on the paradoxes of non-state actor agency in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14267/1588970X.2026.012Keywords:
agency, non-state actors, repression, state agency, substitution, D74, L30, L31, L33Abstract
Beyond introducing the contents of Society & Economy’s thematic issue on non-state actors in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, this article briefly sketches an outline of discussions about non-state actor (NSA) agency and provides a working definition thereof to be used in the issue. Subsequently, it highlights – and posits a rudimentary explanation for – two para-doxes that are of relevance beyond the geographical region in focus: the paradox of the non-linear agency-amplifying impact of state repression and the paradox of substitution. Both have implications for the assessment of state agency, NSA agency, and how the two are dynamically shaped by state-to-NSA and broader state-society relations.
References
Emirbayer, M. & Mische, A. (1998). What is Agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962-1023. https://doi.org/10.1086/231294
Gibson, D. R. (2000). Seizing the Moment: The Problem of Conversational Agency. Sociological Theory, 18(3), 368-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.20 24.2362002
Hewson, M. (2010). Agency. In A. J. Mills, G. Durepos & E. Wiebe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (pp. 12-16). SAGE, London.
Klein, S., & Lee, C.-S. (2019). Towards a dynamic theory of civil society: The politics of forward and backwards. Sociological Theory, 37(1), 62–88. https://doi. org/10.1177/073527511983
Marton, P. (2024). A Theory of Non-state Actors. In P. Marton, G. Thomasen, C. Békés & A. Rácz (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Non-State Actors in East-West Relations (pp. 19-37). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05750-2_89-1
Reynolds, P. A. (1979). Non-state actors and international outcomes. British Journal of International Studies, 5(2), 91–111. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210500114743
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All articles published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0 international license agreement and published open access, making them immediately and freely available to read and download. The CC-BY license agreement allows authors to retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of the work.
Users have the right to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article and make commercial use of the article. The CC BY license permits commercial re-use of an open access article, as long as the author is properly attributed. This license permits, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided by the original work is properly cited.
Suitable reference form: Title of Article, Author, Journal Title, Volume, Issue.
If and when the manuscript is accepted for publication by the journal, the authors agree to automatically transfer the first right of publication to the journal, and permit the journal to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes. Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors.
