Transformative Agency and the Cultivation of Innovations in Frontline Homelessness Work

This is a study of transformative agency in a formative intervention supporting homelessness workers to cultivate successful innovations presented by their colleagues in five workshops. Transformative agency emerges when mediational means are put into use to solve paralyzing conflicts of motives. The study builds on an activity-theoretical framework merging innovation-related and transformative agency by double stimulation approaches. A qualitative method was specifically created for this study to categorize what we call umbrella innovations and their components as sub- and standalone innovations. The analysis shows that the innovations were linked together to serve as second stimuli, which provided a joint platform for solving conflicts of motives and for expansive peer-learning. The presentations of the innovations during the workshops enabled fruitful movement from limiting situations to future-oriented transformation processes. The expansive peer-learning process pushed the transformative agency formation forward by generating dialogue between participants through questioning and re-defining central issues.