Empowerment: emancipation or enervation?

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Abstract
For some time now it has been possible to argue that the notion of empowerment has reached a critical stage in its semantic development; simultaneously bedecked in the sequins of market glitterspeak or the vibrant patchwork of postmodern socialisms its semantic fabric is inclined to fall apart at the touch. Whilst it is true that its burgeoning use has gone hand in hand with its increasingly elusive meaning, paradoxically the significance of empowerment has become more rather than less compelling. This paper offers a preliminary attempt to come to grips with empowerment so that we are in a better position to decide whether it is a helpful notion or whether we would be better off ditching it and focusing our energies on a more satisfactory alternative. Having set the contemporary scene I go on to look at the ‘neutral’, process account of empowerment which claims to be context and value‐free. In the third section I build on some of the emerging issues and sketch out an emancipatory account The fourth section considers some postmodern critiques of emancipatory perspectives before moving on to the final section in which I take issue with aspects of the postmodern accounts. The paper closes by arguing for the importance of exploratory conceptual work in this area.

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