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ABSTRACT
Empowerment is a concept widely used in several policy documents and is presented, in social work and social care professional universes, as an operative process to reduce vulnerability and to increase the power, or capabilities, of individuals and groups to make choices and to transform these into actions and results. However, to move beyond rhetoric and paternalistic practices, we need to understand what empowerment really means and implies in different contexts, and especially, how to evaluate what has changed (outcomes) or is changing (processes), both on an individual and a collective level.
RESUMO
O conceito de empowerment é profusamente utilizado em inúmeros documentos políticos, apresentando-se, no universo das profissões de ajuda e do Serviço Social, como um processo operativo capaz de reduzir a vulnerabilidade e de incrementar o poder, ou as capacidades, de indivíduos e grupos na afirmação de escolhas e na respetiva concretização em termos de ações e resultados. No entanto, para superação de retóricas e práticas paternalistas é necessário compreender o que significa e implica efetivamente o empowerment em diferentes contextos e, especialmente, como avaliar o que mudou (resultados) ou o que está em mudança (processos), quer a um nível individual, quer coletivo.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Clara Cruz Santos has a Ph.D. in Social Work and is professor of Social Work at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra. Actually, she is Member of the Executive Committee of EASSW and the coordinator of the Social Work undergraduate course at the University of Coimbra. She is an associated researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon (CICS.NOVA). Email: [email protected].
Cristina Pinto Albuquerque has a Ph.D. in Humanities (Specialty in Social Work and Social Policy) by the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2004). Actually, she is Professor of social work, social policy and social entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra (PT), where she coordinates the Interuniversity Ph.D. in Social Work (University of Coimbra and Catholic University). She is an integrated researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon (CICS.NOVA) within the research group on Inequalities and Social Action. E-mail: [email protected]
Helena Da Silva Neves Santos Almeida is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra (Portugal), Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Fribourg (2000, Switzerland) with a thesis on Social Mediation. Actually, she coordinates of the Master in Social Work and a consultant of the Foundation for Science and Technology in the framework of applications for doctoral and post-doctoral research. She is an associated researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon (CICS.NOVA). E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID
Cristina Pinto Albuquerque http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-8554
Notes
1. ‘Power over’ – ability to influence the thought and the behaviour of others and to access available resources and processes, and the ability to influence its distribution; ‘Power to’ – take decisions and make own choices and the ability to put them into practice; ‘Power of’ – surveying and resisting the power of others, if necessary (Riger, Citation1993).
2. There are on the World Bank website a series of subjective measures of agency (‘measures that capture peoples’ self-evaluation of whether or not they are free to act as agents’, Alsop & Heinsohn, Citation2005, p. 8), as well as literature on measuring social capital (www.worldbank.org/socialcapital).