Assessing ‘empowerment’ as social development: goal and process

What is it about?

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. Keywords: empowerment, social work, social development, bibliographic systematisation and social indicators

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Why is it important?

The operative framework that we propose puts in the forefront the main challenges for a social intervention focused on empowerment: a) the long time scale, as a critical factor in any intervention with this goal; b) the asymmetric power in the relationship between people and professionals (Dodd and Gutierrez, 1990, cit. in Simon, 1994, p.156); c) the structural dimension of oppression, with the need to identify, to understand and to deconstruct the oppression factors and the points that can block participation; d) the transmission of empowerment. Ninacs (2006) recognizes that by encouraging the acquisition of a critical awareness, individuals will be better able to apply the learning carried out in other life situations; e) participation in personal, communitarian and political domains. The sense of citizenship that implies participation in democratic life and the exercise of rights should be encouraged in an intervention that seeks to develop the ability and the possibility to act, without which it is not possible to speak of empowerment (Ninacs, 2008). Faced nowadays with the challenges of complexity, uncertainty and risk, social work needs to build new skills, new dynamics and a deeper understanding of personal trajectories and of the power connexions within communities, organizations, state and market institutions (Faleiros, 1996, p.22). Social workers need to further develop their critical ability in relation to political and economic institutions as well as their capacity to think and to act strategically in order to deal effectively with present and future problems (Faleiros, 1996, p.16). So, the adoption of a strategic planning logic is fundamental. The setting of goals weighted in advance and the identification or construction of paths to reach them, either through the promotion of abilities of individuals, groups and communities, or using hybrid dimensions to construct and/or consolidate a structure of opportunities, appears to be the way to a theory of change based on empowerment. In this context, a social work able to monitor its practices, measure quantitative and qualitative results, organize synergies, develop research and disseminate the results of the evaluations and change dynamics, will be a truly progressive and strategic social work.