The Rise of Empowerment

This chapter traces the rise of the term empowerment from its early influences through the 1970s and 1980s, when it became a topic of great interest to activists, policymakers, and those in the helping professions, through to contemporary empowerment theory and practice. Particular attention is paid to a multilevel framework for empowerment that has been advanced by community psychologists. This framework posits inextricable and context-specific empowerment processes and outcomes at the psychological, organizational, and community levels of analysis. This conceptualization has been influential in interdisciplinary scholarship and practice, yet work is still needed to coherently link this framework to the concept of community power, as well as to enhance its ability to illuminate dynamic organizational and community processes.

Designing Research and Action

Taking account of the holistic framework for empowerment processes and outcomes developed in previous chapters, this chapter provides recommendations in the form of a set of design principles that can apply to both empowerment research and the various forms of praxis that seek to catalyze, sustain, and multiply empowerment processes. Although there are common concepts that can guide and inform research and action, creative design is needed to tailor efforts for specific local contexts, issues of concern, and questions. The principles offered in this chapter are therefore intended to provide a set of recommendations for translating the frameworks that are the primary focus of the book into context-specific plans for action and research.

Health and Well-Being

Chapter 7 distinguishes multiple hypothesized pathways through which empowerment processes produce impacts on health and well-being. The most direct outcome of empowerment processes is that social power is built and exercised. When this occurs, there are benefits for the participants in those processes, who often experience reduced stress and isolation. Empowerment processes also often lead to changes in policies and systems, thereby addressing systemic inequities and contributing to community well-being. Moreover, since empowerment processes can alter community power structures and make them more egalitarian, this may in itself lead to reduced vulnerability and insecurity and greater trust and cohesion. This chapter delineates multiple pathways—participant, ecological, and pluralist—through which empowerment processes can promote health, well-being, and health equity.

Organizational Development

Voluntary associations and non-profit organizations are the most common catalysts for empowerment processes and the exercise of community power. Yet, there are tremendous variations in scale, mission, composition, and structure among these organizations. How can stakeholders—from staff and volunteers to policymakers and funders—know how best to invest their efforts and resources? Organizational empowerment theory aspires to function as a framework that can shed light on these topics, yet it has inadequately considered how contemporary trends in political economy affect organizations and organizational networks. This chapter elaborates the characteristics of organizations and their networks of relations with other organizations that are conducive to building community power.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this book addresses the need to navigate a perennial paradox: on the one hand, there is great urgency to address the issues currently facing communities; on the other hand, there is need for diligent (and often painfully slow) pursuit of better frameworks and tools that can help advance praxis and make it more effective. In the current sociopolitical context, however, it does not seem nearly as necessary to stress this need for urgency. The urgency should be readily apparent. The final chapter offers concluding thoughts, especially in light of constantly changing sociopolitical contexts. Crises often present unique opportunities for change, and the process of building power to press for change has many benefits.

Community Development

Most have treated empowerment at the community level in vague terms. Scholars in community development and health promotion have identified domains of community empowerment, but these were designed for—and are infrequently used beyond—programmatic contexts. Others have drawn in concepts from social movement studies and sociological work on neighborhood social processes to understand community empowerment, yet these frameworks have not been linked to community power structure or to psychological or organizational empowerment processes. Chapter 6 therefore constructs a new conceptual framework for community empowerment. The intent is to bring empowerment theory closer to being able to realize its fundamental goals of acting as an integrated orientation for action and an infrastructure for systematic research.

Human Development

Perceived control in the settings that a person inhabits is both an underpinning and an outcome of positive human development. This is no less true for the civic or sociopolitical domain than for the family, school, or workplace. It should come as no surprise, then, that perceived control in the sociopolitical domain—an important indicator of psychological empowerment—has been found to be related to other positive developmental outcomes. Yet, for psychological empowerment to be understood in a way that links it inextricably with organizational and community-level empowerment processes, it is not sufficient to focus only on perceived control. Critical awareness of the source, nature, and instruments of power, for example, must be taken into account. This chapter delves into theory and research on the psychological aspects of empowerment and their interplay with other human developmental and educational processes. Although particular attention is paid to the role of empowerment in youth development, psychological empowerment continues to play a vital role in development and education during adulthood.

Introduction

Several branches of social science have sought to generate greater understanding of the ways that people work together to build power and exercise greater control over issues of concern to them. This book examines this existing interdisciplinary work, and seeks to simultaneously integrate and advance it. This chapter describes the Wisconsin Uprising as an example of a systems change effort that did not produce its intended effects in the sociopolitical arena. The fact that many observers and leaders were surprised by the outcome illustrates the importance of careful attention to topics of community power and empowerment. The chapter then summarizes the basic arguments and explains the contents, organization, and intended uses of the book.

Community Power

Power is a fundamental force in community affairs and change processes. This chapter examines community power structure as a basis for understanding empowerment processes. Early social scientific treatments of community power structure focused on which actors won and which lost in publicly visible debates and conflicts over policy. Later studies added conceptual depth by drawing attention to gatekeeping, agenda setting, and other behind-the-scenes maneuvers to influence outcomes that were not typically visible to the public or outside observers. Then, scholars who focused on the ways that power can be used to subtly shape and influence ideology, grievances, and quiescence added still further depth. Taken together, these three “faces” of power in community decision-making comprise a framework for understanding community power. This three-dimensional framework is reviewed and updated in this chapter to elaborate a theory of community power on which to base considerations of empowerment.