Empowerment as Contested Terrain

ABSTRACT

Sociological analysis has mainly portrayed empowerment as a manipulative, masking discourse. However, various actors in society view it as the opposite of domination and espouse it as a goal. Empowerment can constitute a discursive field shaped by its internal contractions between autonomy and control, between ambition and risk of programmed failure, exacerbated by the emphasis on responsibility, and between focus and stigmatization. The paper presents a case study of controversies and interventions concerning employability in The Netherlands. Employability can be seen as empowerment in matters of career. The study is based on 41 interviews with policy makers, managers, union and employers' leaders and politicians. It shows that actors drawing on the principle of empowerment as a goal in itself can reset or reclaim a drifting empowerment project in its inceptive phase and add their own twist during execution, evaluation and efforts to engineer improvements.

Key words:

• empowerment
• social policy
• employability

Notes

^1. Oral communication by Wim Sprenger. Wim Sprenger worked as a policy officer and researcher at the trade union confederation FNV from 1988 until 2001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hans Pruijt

Hans Pruijt studied Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and obtained his PhD from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where he currently teaches in the department of Sociology. His interests include self-management and urban movements.

Mara A. Yerkes

Mara A. Yerkes studied History at Quincy University, Illinois, Public Policy at the University of Minnesota and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, where she also obtained her PhD. Her interests include social and employment policy, comparative welfare states and the combination of work and care.