Empowerment

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

Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Abstract: Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman's UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT looks at lifespan through the lens of social work theory and practice, covering human development and behavior theories within the context of family, organizational, and community systems. Using a chronological lifespan approach, the book presents separate chapters on biological, psychological, and social impacts at the different lifespan stages with an emphasis on strengths and empowerment. As part of the Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series, this edition is completely up to date and thoroughly integrates the core competencies and recommended practice behaviors outlined in the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) set by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

Tackling the Down Side: Social Capital, Women's Empowerment and Micro-Finance in Cameroon

Abstract: Micro-finance programmes are currently dominated by the ‘financial selfsustainability paradigm’ where women’s participation in groups is promoted as a key means of increasing financial sustainability while at the same time assumed to automatically empower them. This article examines the experience of seven micro-finance programmes in Cameroon. The evidence indicates that micro-finance programmes which build social capital can indeed make a significant contribution to women’s empowerment. However, serious questions need to be asked about what sorts of norms, networks and associations are to be promoted, in whose interests, and how they can best contribute to empowerment, particularly for the poorest women. Where the complexities of power relations and inequality are ignored, reliance on social capital as a mechanism for reducing programme costs may undermine programme aims not only of empowerment but also of financial sustainability and poverty targeting.

Involving Parents in the Schools: A Process of Empowerment

Abstract: This four-year study in a southern California school district examined parent-involvement activities as they encouraged isolated Spanish-speaking parents to participate more fully in their children's schooling. The findings showed that conventional avenues for involving parents in school were closed to many parents because specific cultural knowledge (which, in essence, is power) was required in order to participate effectively. On the other hand, nonconventional activities encouraged parents to participate in their children's education through culturally responsive communication. The parent-school empowerment process described in this article illustrates a difficult but possible approach taken by a community interested in Latino children's education. By forming cooperative linkages between the school and families, parents became aware of their children's conditions in their school and their rights as parents to collectively join with others who shared their experience, to cooperate with the schools, and ...

What’s Wrong with Empowerment

Abstract: Although it has stimulated useful and important research and theory in community psychology, the concept of empowerment is problematic. This article criticizes two assumptions and values underlying the concept of empowerment: (a) individualism, leading potentially to unmitigated competition and conflict among those who are empowered; and (b) a preference for traditionally masculine concepts of mastery, power, and control over traditionally feminine concerns of communion and cooperation. The challenge to community psychology is to develop a vision that incorporates both empowerment and community, despite the paradoxical nature of these two phenomena.