Empowerment
Verbal Definition [*]
Empowerment is related to the word power. In English, the concept leans on its original meaning of investment with legal power—permission to act for some specific goal or purpose (Rappaport, 1987).
The new meaning of the concept includes mainly references to power that develops and is acquired. People are managing to gain more control over their lives, either by themselves or with the help of others. The form to be empowered relates to what is both a process and an outcome—to the effort to obtain a relative degree of ability to influence the world (Staples, 1990).
Verbal Definition [*]
Empowerment is related to the word power. In English, the concept leans on its original meaning of investment with legal power—permission to act for some specific goal or purpose (Rappaport, 1987).
The new meaning of the concept includes mainly references to power that develops and is acquired. People are managing to gain more control over their lives, either by themselves or with the help of others. The form to be empowered relates to what is both a process and an outcome—to the effort to obtain a relative degree of ability to influence the world (Staples, 1990).
| elisheva_sadan_empowerment_chapter2.pdf |
[**] "Empowerment and Community Planning" http://www.mpow.org/
[*] by -> Elisheva Sadan (D.Sc) teaches social work at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also the co-author of a book about public participation, with Prof. Arza Churchmann, from [**] "Empowerment and Community Planning" published by Hakibutz Hameuchad, in 1997.