notion : Empowerment
Empowerment
« The Radical Empowerment Discourse: Originating in the 1970s, this discourse was championed by feminists, black, and popular ed- ucation activists, and focused on collective liberation in self-emancipatory and explicitly po- litical terms. It emphasised egalitarian, participatory, and local aspects, and at its core, was framed as the self-capacity of grassroots groups to take power over their own lives and dis- mantle oppressive systems as a necessary condition for social change.
The Reformist and Liberal Empowerment Discourse: Then, in the 1980s, a first elite capture of the meaning occurred, and “from its radical roots, we begin to see its incorporation and institutionalisation within systems of state govern- ance” (McLaughlin, 2016, p.5). The empowerment discourse evolved towards a more re- formist and light-liberal framework of incremental ways to reform without posing a threat to existing systems. The previous focus on conscientização (Freire, 2017) embraced more thera- peutic and isolated notions of individual self-awareness, and the leading figures for change became professionals and experts. Empowerment adopted a state-based, rather than com- munity-based, approach to hybrid governance and light self-management, especially in the realm of community development, as an alternative to older, top-down types of institution- alized government considered paternalistic and obsolescent.
The Neoliberal Evolution of Empowerment: Finally, perhaps the most significant leap in the evolution of empowerment discourse was the full neoliberal shift from the 1990s onwards, when financial interests took over the con- versation. Since then, empowerment has been ultimately stripped of its political and militant meanings and reframed as the entrepreneurial capacity of individuals to insert themselves into the market society. It established its definitive integration into global discourses of man- agerial and financial expertise through programs and policies led by international institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and, through deregulation and privatisation, saw central governments abdicating allocations of power, responsibility, and resources to the free market. » (Volpi et al., 2024)