hi
I couldn't understand what you mean exactly. but as far as I know, in Farsi we say "" tavfize ekhtiar va ghodrat be shekli k be nafe guruhe moaiiani bashe"""
if you mean the keen meaning in socialogy, you have to turn a blind eye to my reply.
thanx for your comment , But it's not my definition of desired
i think , that is "A situation in which poor and needed people of society to reach a stage of self-esteem that not need to aid others and manage their own lives"
this term has used for clients of Relief Committee foundation and Welfare organization.
Becoming aware of their rights, opportunities, resources which are essential for the poor to get access to the resources for a better livelihood.
Empowerment is the process of qualification of a community in the resolution of the problems that affect its well-being, is an instrument of autonomy for community with serious problems that affect its health and are present in the Declaration of Soul, landmark of international the public health and also in the declarations of Promotion of the health.
It has an article that it deals with the subject in the application of empowerment in a community of the periphery in Brazil, but I am not finding, but already I read and I made use of this article in my work of conclusion of the course
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S141381232004000300017&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=pt
This is the article.
That link brings up a fatal error.
Something else that may be of interest:
William Thompson Working Paper 21; Prof. Dr. Peter Herrmann Empowerment_processing the processed - you find it on:
http://www.ucc.ie/en/socialpolicy/WilliamThompsonWorkingPapers/
The European Foundation on Social Quality just published a book, where the question also plays a role and is set in a wider context:
http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=408403
Empowerment is to make poor people to get access to opportunities and resources for meeting their minimum needs without any dependency.
The term has the implication of the more powerful GIVING the less powerful some control over their lives. This is certainly what is meant by much of the normative management literature. And, of course it is conditional and the biggest caveat is that what the powerful give, the powerful can take away, which really begs the question of the notion. Only self-empowerment is powerful and only where the empowered can make and enact decisions that transcend the limitations intended or effected by the already powerful....
World Bank’s Empowerment and Poverty: A Sourcebook (2002) provides the outline for the empowerment framework. It identifies four key elements that can change power relations: access to information, inclusion and participation, social accountability and local organizational capacity.
Empowerment is seen as a development intervention in certain context this is very much seen in women's development. Empowerment as a concept is very much used in the context of women's development particularly in developing countries like India. Caroline Moser (1989: 1799) has traced the evolution of practice in the field of development for women through five approaches. The five different historical approaches to gender planning that she identifies are welfare, equity, antipoverty, efficiency and empowerment.
Some of the definitions of empowerment have a specific focus on development. Keller and Mbwewe (1991) defined empowerment as a process whereby women become able to organize themselves to increase their own self-reliance, to assert their independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination. The principal differences between empowerment and other development approaches are a rejection of top down strategies, the inclusion of consciousness-raising, a recognition of women’s triple roles – production, reproduction and community – and a belief in the importance of women organising by and for themselves (Stein 1997: 28)
an additional stance on the question, not usually considered, can be found in:
Paranoia and the structure of Powerlessness by John Mirowski and Catherine E. Ross; in American Sociaological Revierw 48/2/ (April 1983: 228-239
http://www.joe.org/joe/1999october/comm1.php-
Seems debatable
Understanding Power and Understanding Empowerment
Two things which have vast definitions. click on the link above to understand more on the definition.
A managementpractice of sharing information, rewards, and power with employees so that they can take initiative and make decisions to solve problems and improve service and performance.
Empowerment is based on the idea that giving employees skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well holding them responsible and accountable for outcomes of their actions, will contribute to their competence and satisfaction.
mpowerment is a construct shared by many disciplines and arenas: community development, psychology, education, economics, and studies of social movements and organizations, among others. How empowerment is understood varies among these perspectives. In recent empowerment literature, the meaning of the term empowerment is often assumed rather than explained or defined. Rappoport (1984) has noted that it is easy to define empowerment by its absence but difficult to define in action as it takes on different forms in different people and contexts. Even defining the concept is subject to debate. Zimmerman (1984) has stated that asserting a single definition of empowerment may make attempts to achieve it formulaic or prescription-like, contradicting the very concept of empowerment.
A common understanding of empowerment is necessary, however, to allow us to know empowerment when we see it in people with whom we are working, and for program evaluation. According to Bailey (1992), how we precisely define empowerment within our projects and programs will depend upon the specific people and context involved.
As a general definition, however, we suggest that empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power (that is, the capacity to implement) in people, for use in their own lives, their communities, and in their society, by acting on issues that they define as important.