Community Health Empowerment Rissell
EMPOWERMENT : THE HOLY GRAIL OF HEALTH PROMOTIONS: CHRISTOPHER RISSEL PG 197-207
Empowerment: there is much disagreement around pinning a definition due to not being able to measure it.
Rappaport (87): Empowerment cant be measured, must be considered on a case by case basis
Due to is lack of clear concept and definition, empowerment has evolved, it is complex and has borrowed from many bodies of literature.
1960’s rooted in civil rights and women’s movements
1980’s where distinctions were made between individual subjective experiences and psychological empowerment and reallocating resources both key from community empowerment
PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT (PE)
Def: greater control over one’s own lives may occur with or without involvement in memberships/ political action
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT (CE)
Def: includes a raised level of psychological empowerment, a political component in which members actively participate achievement of redistribution of resources. This def means that CE control over resource redistribution (ltd), means some ppl gain at the expense of others. Therefore groups with actual control over resources have high levels of PE (although the reverse might not be true)
Fig 1: Conceptual stages of community development for maximizing community empowerment potential
Psychological empowerment deficit Community empowerment
A*Process of CE begins with assumption that a power deficit/ social problem exists. (in contrast an empowered comm. logically should include groups of indi with raised sense of empowerment.
*Participation in and influence of a group or organisation is nb* stage of both PE and CE
*therefore the way ppl learn skills – able to transfer it to other situations and this is how comm. develop problem solving abilities
*emphasis is on social action as a core component to CE, is also consistent with principles of health promotion
B. another concept linked to CE = Sense of Community
*Increase in
Empowerment: there is much disagreement around pinning a definition due to not being able to measure it.
Rappaport (87): Empowerment cant be measured, must be considered on a case by case basis
Due to is lack of clear concept and definition, empowerment has evolved, it is complex and has borrowed from many bodies of literature.
1960’s rooted in civil rights and women’s movements
1980’s where distinctions were made between individual subjective experiences and psychological empowerment and reallocating resources both key from community empowerment
PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT (PE)
Def: greater control over one’s own lives may occur with or without involvement in memberships/ political action
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT (CE)
Def: includes a raised level of psychological empowerment, a political component in which members actively participate achievement of redistribution of resources. This def means that CE control over resource redistribution (ltd), means some ppl gain at the expense of others. Therefore groups with actual control over resources have high levels of PE (although the reverse might not be true)
Fig 1: Conceptual stages of community development for maximizing community empowerment potential
Psychological empowerment deficit Community empowerment
A*Process of CE begins with assumption that a power deficit/ social problem exists. (in contrast an empowered comm. logically should include groups of indi with raised sense of empowerment.
*Participation in and influence of a group or organisation is nb* stage of both PE and CE
*therefore the way ppl learn skills – able to transfer it to other situations and this is how comm. develop problem solving abilities
*emphasis is on social action as a core component to CE, is also consistent with principles of health promotion
B. another concept linked to CE = Sense of Community
*Increase in