Towards Empowered Participation


Book Description

Focuses on those rarely-discussed elements of processes that are disempowering to those with least power.




Empowered Participation


Book Description

Every month in every neighborhood in Chicago, residents, teachers, school principals, and police officers gather to deliberate about how to improve their schools and make their streets safer. Residents of poor neighborhoods participate as much or more as those from wealthy ones. All voices are heard. Since the meetings began more than a dozen years ago, they have led not only to safer streets but also to surprising improvements in the city's schools. Chicago's police department and school system have become democratic urban institutions unlike any others in America. Empowered Participation is the compelling chronicle of this unprecedented transformation. It is the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the ways in which participatory democracy can be used to effect social change. Using city-wide data and six neighborhood case studies, the book explores how determined Chicago residents, police officers, teachers, and community groups worked to banish crime and transform a failing city school system into a model for educational reform. The author's conclusion: Properly designed and implemented institutions of participatory democratic governance can spark citizen involvement that in turn generates innovative problem-solving and public action. Their participation makes organizations more fair and effective. Though the book focuses on Chicago's municipal agencies, its lessons are applicable to many American cities. Its findings will prove useful not only in the fields of education and law enforcement, but also to sectors as diverse as environmental regulation, social service provision, and workforce development.




Deepening Democracy


Book Description

The forms of liberal democracy developed in the 19th century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the 21st. This dilemma has given rise to a deliberative democracy, and this text explores four contemporary cases in which the principles have been at least partially instituted.




Empowerment and Participation in Youth Work


Book Description

In today′s society, many young people feel marginalised and unable to find their own voice. It is vital therefore that youth workers are able to work with them to tackle this in a meaningful way. Drawing on the real experiences and difficulties faced by youth workers, this book will help those who want to work with young people in an empowering way. The concepts of empowerment and participation are explained, explored and critically analysed, along with the key notion of resilience. This is backed up by activities and case studies which help to bring together the theory and the practice.




The Media, Political Participation and Empowerment


Book Description

Technological, cultural and economic forces are transforming political communication, posing challenges and opportunities for politicians and media organisations, while at the same time many governments and civil society express concerns about the extent and nature of political empowerment and civic engagement. This book offers an international perspective on current thinking and practice about civic and audience empowerment, focusing on the ways and means through which media can empower or dis-empower citizens as audiences. It features theoretical and empirical chapters that draw specific attention to a reappraisal of the theories, methods and issues that inform our understanding of citizens and audiences in contemporary politics. The authors address the following questions: How much and what sorts of civic and audience empowerment are most desirable, and how does this differ cross-nationally? How do citizens relate to private and public spaces? How do citizens function in online, networked, liminal and alternative spaces? How do audiences of ‘non-political’ media spaces relate their experiences to politics? How are political parties and movements utilising audiences as co-creators of political communication and what are the consequences for democracy? With examples from the UK, USA, Holland, France, Germany, The Middle East, South Africa and Mexico, this innovative volume will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, marketing, journalism, cultural studies, public relations, media and international relations.




Community Empowerment


Book Description

Reprinted from the 25th anniversary issue of Community Development Journal (no date noted) 17 essays review contemporary campaigns for community participation and empowerment. Some explore such aspects as the concept of empowerment and its relation to public policy and development within social movements, and the relevance of the mixed economy of welfare to self-help and community participation. Others present case studies from Europe, the US, Australia, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Paper edition (unseen), $25.00. Distributed in the US by Humanities Press. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Empowered!


Book Description

Empowered!examines Arizona’s recent political history and how it has been shaped and propelled by Latinos. It also provides a distilled reflection of U.S. politics more broadly, where the politics of exclusion and the desire for inclusion are forces of change. Lisa Magaña and César S. Silva argue that the state of Arizona is more inclusive and progressive then it has ever been. Following in the footsteps of grassroots organizers in California and the southeastern states, Latinos in Arizona have struggled and succeeded to alter the anti-immigrant and racist policies that have been affecting Latinos in the state for many years. Draconian immigration policies have plagued Arizona’s political history. Empowered! shows innovative ways that Latinos have fought these policies. Empowered! focuses on the legacy of Latino activism within politics. It raises important arguments about those who stand to profit financially and politically by stoking fear of immigrants and how resilient politicians and grassroots organizers have worked to counteract that fear mongering. Recognizing the long history of disenfranchisement and injustice surrounding minority communities in the United States, this book outlines the struggle to make Arizona a more just and equal place for Latinos to live.




Photovoice


Book Description

"Divergent Vistas and Civil Voices for Education, Empowerment, and Critical Thinking" describes Photovoice through the lenses of different communities and countries and discusses the methods and tools that make Photovoice appropriate for cross-cultural use. This book delves into the strategies for using photography, visual arts, and group dialogue to identify community assets and concerns, generate empowerment through participation, and address health disparities and inequities. The book highlights practice-focused applications of examples of community implementation of Photovoice and the use of visual arts. The book also intends to inspire advocates, researchers, clinicians, health and social service providers, policy makers, and multi-sectoral community stakeholders as they engage in collaborative research and practice to address inequities. Readers will be able to undertake a Photovoice Project to facilitate critical consciousness-raising for action to address disparities, discrimination, isolation, and exclusion at the community and societal levels to make the invisible visible.




Women and Empowerment


Book Description

The empowerment of women by their increased participation in all aspects of political, social and economic life has become one of the major goals of democratic and participatory movements, as well as women's organizations, throughout the world. This book examines the vital interaction of women's increasing participation, decision-making and empowerment. Marilee Karl also examines the legal, economic and social obstacles faced by women around the world. She provides vivid examples of women responding to those challenges. Beyond offering an understanding of what participation and empowerment are and can be, this book seeks to promote women's participation whether at the grassroots or at national and international levels. The book looks at the growing involvement of women in different organizations, politics and public life, development programmes and international decision-making. It outlines the strategies, mechanisms and tools that women are using for their empowerment and explains new priorities and perspectives that women are bringing to today's key issues.




Avenues of Participation


Book Description

Intentionally excluded from formal politics in authoritarian states by reigning elites, do the common people have concrete ways of achieving community objectives? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book demonstrates that they do. Focusing on the political life of the sha'b (or popular classes) in Cairo, Diane Singerman shows how men and women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. Starting at the household level in one densely populated neighborhood of Cairo, Singerman examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decision-making. Combining the institutional focus of political science with the sensitivities of anthropology, she uncovers a system of informal networks, supported by an informal economy, that constitutes another layer of collective institutions within Egypt and allows excluded groups to pursue their interests. Avenues of Participation traces this informal system from its grounding in the family to its influence on the larger polity. Discussing the role of these networks in meeting fundamental needs in the community--such as earning a living, reproducing the family, saving and investing money, and coping with the bureaucracy--Singerman demonstrates the surprising power these "excluded" people wield. While the government has reduced politics to the realm of distribution to protect itself from challenges, she argues that the popular classes in Cairo, as consumers of goods and services, have turned exploiting the government into a fine art.