1 MONTE MÓR, W., 2013. The Development of Agency in a New Literacies Proposal for Teacher Education in Brazil in E. S. Junqueira e M. E. K. Buzato (orgs) New Literacies, New Agencies? A Brazilian Perspective on Mindsets, Digital Practices and Tools for Social Action In and Out of School. Nova York: Peter Lang Publishers, p 126-146 Chapter 7 The Development of Agency in a New Literacies Proposal for Teacher Education in Brazil Walkyria Monte Mór Is it viable to think that everyone has potential for agency in the same way that it is acknowledged that everyone is an organic intellectual? While pondering the role of intellectuals in society, Gramsci (1982) asserted that all are intellectuals in that all have intellectual and rational faculties, though not all of them have the social function of intellectuals. Based on this premise, is it not also possible to say that we are “organic agents,” invested with “organic agency ,” in allusion to the gramscian view of the intellectual being? Arendt’s (2007) theories on action may fully contribute to this inquiry. When discussing action in relation to the concept of vita activa, Arendt (2007) defined it as a capacity that all have to do something, taking into consideration the fact that “living” or “being alive” necessarily implies action: that is, "human life…is actively engaged in doing something" (p. 22). All participate in social contexts by means of their abilities or capabilities with words and acts, as asserted by Arendt. To act, according to Arendt, refers to taking the initiative, having a compelling and living impulse to an action or actions. Action, she added, reveals who the actor is. The fact that all are able to act—to take the initiative and not only to reproduce actions—raises the expectation of the unexpected, if one reasons that initiatives may go beyond repeating conditioned measures. An idea that leads to the interpretation that to act refers to action in a broad sense, not only restricted to the repeated or programmed occurrences that require people to act or respond to them, but also leads people to evaluate and act in face of what escapes the ordinary, reiterated, and expected social order or even personal routine. Would it not refer to agency as it has been focused?