Empowerment

About: Empowerment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 42112 publications have been published within this topic receiving 752953 citations.

Nurses' views on empowerment: a critical social theory perspective

Abstract: This is the first study which describes British nurses' views on the concept of empowerment. Despite the frequent call for nurses to empower patients there was no evidence in the literature about British nurses' views. The study was carried out prior to a course exploring empowerment for practice. Focus groups were used to gather the data. Critical social theory and the work of Paulo Freire (1972) and Jurgen Habermas (1971, 1979) was used as a theoretical framework to underpin the enquiry. Taped interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Four categories emerged from the data to provide the framework for the themes: 'empowerment', 'having personal power', 'relationships within the multidisciplinary team', and 'feeling right about oneself'. It is suggested that the nurses in this study manifested signs of being oppressed and striving for liberation. The limitations of the study are identified, but the overall conclusion is that the teaching of critical social theories as an empowerment paradigm is relevant in nurse education today.

Variation in labor market participation of married women in Turkey

Abstract: We explore the role of paid work in women's empowerment in Turkey by analyzing the variation in employment status and occupational position of Turkish women according to socio-economic and geographic background characteristics, characteristics of their marriage, and gender role attitudes. Being employed is seen as a major instrument in making women less dependent on their families and freeing them from the suppressing influence of patriarchal ideologies. However, only 35% of married women are gainfully employed and half of them work as (family) farm workers. Women engaged in the formal economy are more highly educated, have husbands with higher occupations, have fewer children, live in the West and urban areas, are less suppressed by their families and have less traditional gender role attitudes. Not speaking Turkish is a major obstacle to economic independency for ethnic women. Findings basically support the U-curve hypothesis which predicts that with increasing modernization female employment first decreases and then increases. However, the effects of modernization are overshadowed by the strong influence of patriarchal ideology that tends to confine Turkish women to the private domain. The major way out of the web of patriarchal restrictions seems to be via education.

The growing interest in spirituality in business: A long‐term socio‐economic explanation

Abstract: Interest in spirituality in business has been growing recently. This paper tries to explain such growth of interest through the application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the social level. As the industrial revolution evolved, economic prosperity and stability spread to a majority of people in developed countries. These societies as a whole were then able to shift from concerns primarily about survival and security to concerns of higher order needs, such as social, esteem, and self‐actualization needs. As people throughout a society are increasingly able to trust that their lower needs will be met, they increasingly and naturally begin to explore their higher order needs. This can explain many recent phenomena in business, such as workers seeking more than money from work, increasing empowerment and participation, and the many recent books, conferences, and practices about spirituality, sustainability, and other such issues as they relate to business.

Cybersenior Empowerment: How Some Older Individuals Are Taking Control of Their Lives:

Abstract: As individuals age, many begin to perceive a loss of control in their personal and social lives. To regain some of that control, individuals are buying computers and going on the Internet. The authors suggest that individuals who go on the Internet are empowering themselves because they are participating with others in a community and increasing personal control over their lives. They discuss potential empowerment themes developed from a convenience sample of older individuals (i.e., 50 or older) by analyzing their comments on how the Internet has influenced their personal and social lives. Emerging empowerment themes include the power of change, information, guilt, and how the Internet has enriched lives and expanded worldviews. What respondents told the authors has implications for funding and development of public policy including health and quality-of-life issues.

Beyond the Market and State : Social enterprises and civil democracy in a welfare society

Abstract: This text explores the role of social economy and civil democracy in transforming welfare state in Sweden, while retaining public financing for social services. This can be achieved through cooperative self-management and greater citizen participation as co-producers. Separating the financing from the provision of universal social services and contracting out their provision to social enterprises can promote several important social values, such as: enrichment of work life, improvement of work environment and increased co-determination for the worker; the empowerment of citizens as co-producers of the services they demand; and finally the transformation of the welfare state into a welfare society. The text undertakes an extensive conceptual discussion necessary for understanding the potentials of social enterprises in meeting the challenges facing the welfare state at the turn of the century. This includes the concepts of the third sector, civil society and civil democracy, and then of both the economic and political aspects of civil democracy. It extends the study of psychosocial work environment with the dimension of enduring client interaction. It summarizes the Work Environment and Cooperative Social Services Project, financed by the Swedish coucil for Work Environment Research between 1992-1996. This includes Organizational Study, Staff Study and Parent Study, comparisons of different cooperative services and municipal day care.