Resilience at the Margins: Developing the Cultural Agency Model Through a Concept-Driven Integrative Literature Review of the Badjao Experience

Abstract

The Badjao are an indigenous group living at sea in the Philippines, marginalized and generationally poor. A literature review of Badjao experiences of marginalization and resilience is used to provide insight into the interrelated cultural, social and structural forces that shape those experiences. It employs a concept driven integrative literature review to synthesize scholarly articles, NGO reports, policy documents and selected contextual sources into five recurring themes. The five major themes were cycle of deprivation, structural barriers, access and opportunity, support systems and growth, and cultural adaptation and agency. The synthesis shows that structural neglect, lack of legal identity and limited access to education and livelihood sustain deprivation and exclusion but culturally anchored support systems and inclusive opportunities can foster resilience and agency. This study proposes the Cultural Agency Model as a framework for understanding empowerment as an outcome when communities are recognized, engaged and supported in culturally appropriate ways. The model acknowledges the dynamic interaction of constraining and facilitating forces and proposes that sustainable culturally responsive systems can create conditions that facilitate opportunities for increasing agency and transformation. The model does not frame some behaviors (often stigmatized in marginalized groups) as deficits but as adaptive responses to identity and survival, shaped by context. Although constrained by its dependence on secondary sources, the study does provide a conceptual basis for future participatory research. The Cultural Agency Model offers a conceptual path toward understanding inclusive development as the co-creation of empowerment through systems of recognition, belonging and self-determination.