ABSTRACT
Agency is, without question, one of the key concepts, possibly the key concept of Childhood Studies. The aim here is to reconceptualise agency so that its considerable potential can continue to be utilised for future research and theory development on children and childhood, both nationally and internationally. The significance of agency as a key concept for Childhood Studies goes back to the original aspiration of this area of research: to appreciate children's active contribution to the shaping of their social worlds and to society, and to theoretically conceptualise and empirically analyse this contribution. Childhood Studies scholars research has to do with children outside the Western world who do not possess the social capacity to act and create, which has normally been associated with agency in Childhood Studies. In many cases, Childhood Studies scholars have focused their efforts on reconstructing agency by documenting the utterances of children, with a strong emphasis on authenticity.
