Key concepts for participatory ideology

This chapter focuses on three further ideas and issues that are key for advancing participatory ideology: empowerment, language, and knowledge. The chapter examines each in more detail, focusing first on the theoretical discussion of making social and political change, as this is at the heart of this book's project. It explores the concept of empowerment, a unique two-part idea for making change, which highlights the need for personal change as a prerequisite for participation in political change. It also traces the idea's origins, its conceptualisation, different meanings, and what works to make it possible. The chapter then looks at language and its importance for ideology; how it is used to reinforce inequalities, impose power and manipulate people, and how this has been and can be challenged. Ultimately, the chapter investigates knowledge; the role it has long been given to legitimate ruling ideologies, and how revolutionary and new social movements have highlighted and challenged this. It reviews the emergence of experiential knowledge as an important part of this challenge and the important role it serves in helping to democratise knowledge and political ideology.