Role of Human Agency in Explaining Poverty

Dualism between structure and action is one of the most important subjects in all of sociological paradigms and sociologists paid attention to poverty and its individual or structural causes. This article investigates the relationship between human agency and poverty. The research is carried out in two regions of Esfahan and the main tool is questionnaire. The sample size is 191. There is statistically significant correlation between individual characteristics and economic situation. Individual characters explain 12.8 percent of variation in economic condition. Human agency has an important influence on human’s economic situation along with social and economic structure.