This article explores the performance of agency within the context of unequal power resources and structural constraint. Based on 23 video-recorded placement meetings in three homeless shelters, we find that participants' agency is the outcome of both collaboration and resistance. To avoid interaction that fails to empower, social actors engage in “repair work” and face-saving practices. When clients display “wrong face”—that is, bring problems to the table that are not considered “reasonable”—then the service providers engage in “repair work.” Participants turn conflict into collaborative agency because interactions that fail to deliver mutually empowering forms of agency have costs for both: clients' problems are not solved, and service providers fail to reach organizational goals.

中文翻译：

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现实生活中的能动性表现：将不平等的权力和结构性约束转化为合作

本文探讨了权力资源不平等和结构约束背景下的代理绩效。基于三个无家可归者收容所的 23 次录播安置会议，我们发现参与者的能动性是合作和抵抗的结果。为了避免无法授权的互动，社会行为者从事“修复工作”和面子实践。当客户表现出“错脸”——即把不被认为是“合理”的问题摆到桌面上时——那么服务提供商就会从事“修复工作”。参与者将冲突转化为协作代理，因为不能提供相互授权的代理形式的交互对双方都有成本：客户的问题没有得到解决，服务提供者无法实现组织目标。