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Empowerment Theory
Abstract
This chapter discusses the value orientation underlying an empowerment approach to social change. Next, the author briefly describes empowerment as theory, and then examines the construct of empowerment at the individual, organizational, and community levels of analysis. A discussion of the parameters of empowerment, a brief review of relevant research, and suggestions for future research at each level of analysis are also included. The chapter emphasizes the individual level because most of the research to date has been devoted to this level of analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Informal settlement livelihoods in South Africa are characterized by a structural waiting for housing improvements. Participatory mapping and enumeration (PME) are a key tool for Capetonians NGOs to tackle urban injustice and improve livelihoods. Unfortunately, PME evaluation and empowerment dynamics are often linked and reduced to the PME final output (data, cartographic artefact, etc.). Based on an action-research PME project implemented by a Capetonian local NGO and by S section informal settlement’s community (Khayelitsha), this paper explores PME as an empowering strategy for activating the waiting phase for housing. Drawing on postcolonial approach, this paper frames empowerment as “topological resonances” enabled during PME through the dual dynamics of “translation” and “connectedness.” Translation and connectedness are applied to the case study of S Section and allow for the capture of interstitial yet critical empowerment dynamics that go beyond PME outcomes alone.
El dengue es una enfermedad que constituye un problema de salud pública difícil de controlar por la multidimensionalidad de factores asociados y las particularidades de los territorios. En este artículo se analiza la noción de empoderamiento familiar relacionada con la prevención y control del dengue en Córdoba, Colombia. De julio a octubre de 2023, a partir de un enfoque cualitativo se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a 30 grupos familiares localizados en los municipios de San Andrés de Sotavento, San Bernardo del Viento, Pueblo Nuevo y Montería, seleccionados por ser territorios indígenas, afrodescendientes o con población rural y urbano en condiciones de vulnerabilidad. Los resultados muestran que las familias, más allá de sus arreglos particulares en términos de estructura y dinámica, son conscientes de su lugar en la prevención y control de enfermedades, identificando las capacidades requeridas para enfrentar el dengue. Sin embargo, reproducen narrativas de dominio conceptual y de poder que asignan un mayor compromiso por parte de los agentes educativos y de salud para el fomento de alternativas que contribuyan a disminuir los riesgos por dengue. Se discuten los desafíos que se deben enfrentar para un efectivo empoderamiento familiar, de modo que las prácticas de prevención cobren mayor vigor.
The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of adolescent' participation in club activities on their citizenship in sub‐Saharan Africa countries, specifically focusing on participation in Good Neighbors International's club activity in Malawi. For this, the Good Neighbors' Hope School Project Survey data were analysed through ordinary least squares and propensity score matching regression. The results showed that participation in club activities had a positive effect on improving adolescents' citizenship. This study also showed that school‐related factors and relationship with others affect adolescents' citizenship. Based on this finding, the study concluded that participation in club activities can be understood as a process that connects adolescents with their lives and community problems or internalizes the global agenda, and it implies adolescents can grow up as global citizens through club activities in Malawi.
One of the major challenges for edu-communication research is to analyze the influence of social media on young and adolescent users. This article examines the evaluation of gender inequalities – real and symbolic – in the consumption of social networks such as YouTube and Instagram among young people. Within the framework of a Research & Development & innovation (R&D + i) project, it presents a discursive-theoretical analysis of how young users of social media perceive the presence and representation of gender on social media and whether such digital representations can be associated with an empowering gender perspective. This study presents results from 14 focus groups (N = 83), composed of students aged 12 to 18, drawn from three Spanish Autonomous Communities (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country). The results show that gender issues arise in participants’ conversations, especially among female participants, who perceive the importance of physical appearance on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Female participants feel more pressure in terms of appearance and dress compared to male participants. Among male participants there are more expressions of self-affirmation and more mentions related to fun and social prestige. Both male and female participants express concern about the impact of that pressure on younger girls. The influence of social media on self-image is more evident among female participants, who make frequent mention of the importance of self-esteem in relation to beauty standards and exposure to idealized body images. Notably, there were no comments by male participants that acknowledge any influence of social media on their self-image. The findings are in line with existing research and taken as a whole gives rise to concern as to the gender disparities observed in the use of social media, which do not constitute a picture of female empowerment. This research underlines the importance of promoting a respectful and equitable environment in relation to gender equality within digital spaces. Thus, this study provides support for the need to develop and implement edu-communicative initiatives to foster critical thinking around the influence of social media in this context and the evaluation of the impact of such initiatives in future research.
This study analyses issues faced during the pre-implementation and implementation stages of the social innovation (SI) process, which is considered an effective approach to addressing sustainable development (SD) challenges. Specifically, it presents the results of a rigorous literature review and analysis of 55 English and Chinese-language articles on Chinese SI published through the end of April 2021. After a brief description of the characteristics of SI related to SD in China, it investigates from a systematic perspective the key elements, processes, and outcomes of SI seeking to deliver sustainable values through a comparative analysis of findings from the Western and the Eastern world. The results advance our understanding of how SI emerges and evolves throughout the process of addressing SD problems. The framework and propositions presented in this work advance the development of theory related to the pre-implementation and implementation stages of SI for SD issues. The study also extends SI theories from a systematic perspective to provide analysis and decision support for various players involved in these stages. It explains how key elements and the SI process itself affect the outcome, and how this affects the decisions of initiators and other stakeholders. This work can help practitioners and researchers understand the internal workings of the SI system at different stages, thus allowing them to formulate policies, strategies, and guidelines for pursuing SD goals.
This study examines the impact of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on women's empowerment in Oyo state. A cluster sampling procedure was used to select 283 respondents for this study. Data for this study was sourced using primary sources. The questionnaire was administered to elicit information from the study respondents. Data obtained were measured using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics using binary logistic regression. The results showed that 43.1% of the respondents were between the ages of 41-50years, 48.8% of the respondents had NCE/OND qualification, most (57.6%) of the respondents were divorced, 32.9% of the respondents were engaged in agriculture, most (66.4%) of the respondents were sole proprietorship, 43.8% of the respondents have 10-20year of operation. Furthermore, the majority (77.0%) of the respondents agreed that involvement in SMEs has positively impacted their personal empowerment or financial stability, 98.6% of the respondents believe that government policies and support systems adequately promote women's empowerment through SMEs in Oyo State, most (67.8%) of the respondent thought SMEs enhance financial literacy. Also, the majority (93.6%) of the respondents agreed that involvement in SMEs has empowered them economically and socially.
Presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of personal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery, further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived from 4 principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. Factors influencing the cognitive processing of efficacy information arise from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and behavioral changes. (21/2 p ref)
Although health education and social work professionals have developed and adapted numerous approaches and change strategies in recent years, the principles and methods loosely referred to as community organizing remain a central method of practice. We define community organizing as the process by which community groups are helped to identify common problems or change targets, mobilize resources, and develop and implement strategies to reach their collective goals. The newer and related concept of community building is viewed here not so much as a "strategic framework" as an orientation to community through which people who identify as members engage together in building community capacity rather than "fixing problems" through the application of specific and externally driven strategies (see chapter 5).1.
Although Barker's “behavior setting theory” (Barker, 1968; Price, 1976) is widely cited for its potential applications to community psychology, critical examination of this conception reveals significant limitations in its operational definition of “community” and in the extent to which predictions regarding direct influences on behavior have been validated in natural settings. From the perspective of community psychology there is also reason to question behavior setting theory's fundamental emphasis on the structural form of settings rather than on the functions they fulfill for their participants. Adopting new units of analysis and placing greater emphasis on the intended and unintended satisfactions that settings produce will make behavior setting theory more relevant to several problems in community psychology, including community assessment, person‐environment interaction, and community change.
The vital issue facing urban America during the 1960's-the downward spiral of poverty, deterioration, and exploitation in poor neighborhoods-was attacked by The Woodlawn Organization (TWO) in Chicago. John Hall Fish, an active participant in TWO, tells the story of one of the most exciting, controversial, and significant experiments in community control. Founded in 1961 by a group of clergymen, with tactical advice from Saul Alinsky, TWO grew to become the major force for community development and self-government in the Woodlawn area. The author traces TWO's history as it struggled to achieve significant community control over the problems that threatened the black inner-city community. He concentrates on three controversial programs: the Youth Project (involving the Blackstone Rangers), the Woodlawn Experimental Schools project, and the Model Cities program. Although TWO ultimately failed to overcome the entrenched opposition of city agencies, its very survival, the author argues, is a measure of its success. For as the cumbersome urban bureaucracies prove ever more ineffective, it is the existence of organized and experienced community organizations that will determine the possibility of neighborhood rebirth and renewal.
Despite increasing attention on the topic of empowerment, our under-standing of the construct and its underlying processes remains limited. This article addresses these shortcomings by providing an analytical treatment of the construct and by integrating the diverse approaches to empowerment found in both the management and psychology literatures. In addition, the authors identify certain antecedent conditions of powerlessness and practices that have been hypothesized to empower subordinates.
It has long been maintained that community action organizations can overcome feelings of powerlessness among the poor. Implicit in this belief are two untested propositions: (1) within the poverty culture there is a negative relationship between organizational affiliation and feelings of powerlessness; and (2) participation in community organizations produces feelings of destiny control. A study of AFDC mothers revealed that members of a welfare client organization were more likely to have feelings of mastery and control than non-members. The fact that members were no different from non-members on key variables related to powerlessness would suggest that more powerful welfare recipients were not selectively recruited into the organization. Although inferences are limited due to the use of cross-sectional data, it would appear that organizational affiliation plays an important role in reducing feelings of powerlessness among the welfare poor.