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Empowering the people: 'empowerment' and the British Journal of Social Work, 1971–99
- Author:
- MCLAUGHLIN Kenneth
- Journal article citation:
- Critical and Radical Social Work, 2(2), 2014, pp.203-216.
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
This paper offers a historical and contextual discussion of the concept of empowerment, a term that proliferates in contemporary social work and social policy discourse. First, I discuss the rise of 'empowerment' within social policy and social work highlighting some of the factors that have led to it becoming embedded within such circles, discussing the justifications and criticisms of both the term and the interventions that can result from it. Second, I take a more specific look at the way empowerment was discussed and debated within the British Journal of Social Work from the journal's inception in 1971 through to the end of 1999. The discussion alerts us of the need to view empowerment not as a fixed a priori good, but as embedded within social and political relationships, and therefore as a concept that can be used for either progressive or regressive social policies and related social work practices. (Publisher abstract)
Social housing, community empowerment and well-being: part one – empowerment practice in social housing
- Author:
- ROSENBERG Jonathan
- Journal article citation:
- Housing Care and Support, 14(4), 2011, pp.113-122.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article presents an overview of the recent developments in social housing policy and the evolving practice of a community-owned and managed agency, Walterton and Elgin Community Homes (WECH). The benefits of more community-owned services include the more efficient and holistic management of properties. Community-based, resident-controlled housing associations offer a secure foundation for building in additional services as part of the continued drive to devolve public services to the local level, including hosting of a substantial range of community services, for example the reintegration of the Police into the community. The experience and practice of WECH supports the proposition that community ownership of social housing may be an exceptionally effective means for improving and sustaining wellbeing in poor neighbourhoods. The article argues that Government policy should actively support mass mutualisation as a means for improving wellbeing on council/social housing estates and for empowering poorer communities to take greater control of their welfare
The ‘user’: friend, foe or fetish?: a critical exploration of user involvement in health and social care
- Authors:
- COWDEN Stephen, SINGH Gurnam
- Journal article citation:
- Critical Social Policy, 27(1), February 2007, pp.5-23.
- Publisher:
- Sage
‘User Involvement’ has become the new mantra in Public Services with professionals constantly being reminded that ‘user knows best’. The purpose of this paper is to ask where the preoccupation with ‘the User’ comes from and to pose some questions about what ‘User Involvement’ actually means. Within the paper the authors see three issues as central within this. The first is a consideration of the historical antecedents of the discourse of ‘User Involvement’, focusing in on the struggles over British welfare that took place around the late 1970s–early 1980s. This forms the context from which we seek to understand and critique the New Labour project in relation to the massive expansion of regulatory frame works. The authors argue that, far from enabling the delivery of high quality integrated services that truly reflect the interests of current and future users, these policies represent the further commodification of basic human needs and welfare. Finally, it has become apparent the current ‘User’ discourse has assumed contradictory manifestations, in particular the emergence of groupings of ‘professional users’ who participate in the formation of state policy as ‘expert consultants’. The authors conclude by arguing for an approach in which user perspectives are neither privileged nor subjugated, but are situated in a process of creative critical dialogue with professionals, which is linked to the development of a concept of welfare driven by emancipatory rather than regulatory imperatives.
The myth of transition: contractualizing disability in the sheltered workshop
- Author:
- GILL Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 20(6), October 2005, pp.613-623.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This paper investigates notions of transition and independence, as well as the current circumstances that detain countless disabled people in employment endeavors that not only pay meager wages but also cement a lifelong servitude to the workshop. Sheltered workshops exist on the basis and replication of a structure that incarcerates disabled people within vocational like settings. This paper begins a discussion of the social contract that occurs between the disabled person in the workshop. The workshop is no longer a place of societal liberation that affords the individual the opportunity to learn vocational skills, but rather it has become an institution that creates its own army of workers that will forever be subjected to a life in the workshop because of their disability status.
Organizing self-help groups for empowerment and social change: findings and insights from an empirical study in Hong Kong
- Author:
- MOK Bong-ho
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Community Practice, 13(1), 2005, pp.49-67.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philapelphia, USA
Empirical research has shown that self-help groups are not purely about individual change and intra-personal empowerment, but also about policy change and collective empowerment. In North America and Europe, such groups have been in the forefront of social change, and self-help represents a new political potential. However, findings of this study of self-help groups in Hong Kong indicate that social change has never been their common objective. In addition, members of the Hong Kong groups feel unable to impact social policies that affect their lives, despite wanting to do so. It is contended in this paper that this feeling of powerlessness among members might be related to the nature, size and length of existence of the self-help groups. It is further argued that self-help groups should form coalitions and seek professional assistance in order to effect social change and to strengthen and broaden their power base.
Theorising empowerment: individual power and community care
- Author:
- SERVIAN Richard
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Publication year:
- 1996
- Pagination:
- 77p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
Argues that community care policy is the latest in a long line of policies which have failed to live up to the promise of empowering vulnerable individuals. Focuses on people with learning difficulties and presents a framework for analysis to help individuals avoid becoming disempowered.
New directions in welfare? France, West Germany, Italy and Britain in the 1980s
- Author:
- CHAMBERLAYNE Prue
- Journal article citation:
- Critical Social Policy, 33, Winter 1991, pp.5-21.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Introduces debates about the future of welfare, particularly systems of income maintenance, and identifies two axes of debate: the first economic, concerned with responses to labour market restructuring, challenges to the insurance-assistance divide, and demands that 'care' be rewarded as 'work'; and secondly, concerning social relations of welfare - bureaucratisation, empowerment and strengthening the 'social'.
Personalisation, individualism and the politics of disablement
- Author:
- DODD Steven
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 28(2), 2013, pp.260-273.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This paper assesses the social policy narrative personalisation, and particularly the implications of the narrative for disability politics. The advantages and disadvantages of positioning specific funding mechanisms within the narrative are explored. It is argued that personalisation is insufficiently aligned with collective aspects of empowerment. More particularly, it disproportionately emphasises improvements in individual autonomy through personalised support, and lacks reference to structural oppression or the need for collective forms of action that bring about structural change. It is further argued that personalisation lack a multi-faceted analysis of disability and disempowerment, and as a result also lacks any vision of a positive alternative society. In assessing personalisation, the positive and negative dimensions of disabled people’s freedom are considered. As a response to the apparent shortcomings of personalisation, the integrated living approach and Centres for Independent Living are considered important elements in an alternative narrative to personalisation. (Publisher abstract)
Imagining ‘radical’ youth work possibilities – challenging the ‘symbolic violence’ within the mainstream tradition in contemporary state-led youth work practice in England
- Author:
- COOPER Charlie
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Youth Studies, 15(1), February 2012, pp.53-71.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article examines the current state-led youth work tradition in England, and explores the possibilities for engaging disadvantaged young people in activities that facilitate resistance to oppression. The basic premise is that the current framework for youth work policy and practice is closing off opportunities for progressive ways of working with young people and is hindering their capacity to overcome the constraints limiting their life chances. The article is based on data from the author’s interpretive observations at an open-access youth club in a deprived inner-city district of an English city. The majority of the young people using the club suffered severe social disadvantage. However, the political frameworks for state-led youth work worked against imagining strategies of resistance and social change. The article draws on Bourdieu's notion of symbolic violence to explore the way the operations of social institutions often conceal the power relations behind the violence of oppression. In the case of contemporary youth work practice, the force of this symbolic violence is having profound material consequences in the form of denied aspirations.
Below the radar in a big society?: reflections on community engagement, empowerment and social action in a changing policy context
- Author:
- McCABE Angus
- Publisher:
- Third Sector Research Centre
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 19p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Birmingham
The Big Society has become a key element of the Coalition’s Government policy platform. It not only affects the delivery of public services by the formal and funded voluntary sector but also in terms of communities, more informal third sector activities and individual citizens. The term ‘below the radar’ (BTR) has become a short-hand term often applied to describe small voluntary organisations, community groups and more informal or semi-formal activities in the third sector. This paper examines the debates about BTR community groups and their assumed role in delivering ‘big society’. It argues that the motivators for community action are poorly understood in policy circles. Further, there is little analysis of the power relationship between the state communities and neighbourhoods which can inform meaningful debate on devolution and localism. The paper explores the implications of the new policy environment for small community groups and asks can such activity be co-opted to deliver particular government policy objectives?