Exploring empowerment: A new conceptual framework for the study of emprowerment in practice

Murray, Justina E. (1999) Exploring empowerment: A new conceptual framework for the study of emprowerment in practice. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis explores empowerment through a qualitative research study of eight Scottish voluntary and community sector projects, all of which shared a stated objective of empowerment. The research involved analysis of existing empowerment literature, in-depth interviews with key 'commentators' in the selected projects, documentary analysis and the observation of critical processes. The thesis does not seek to evaluate the effectiveness of empowerment practice, but rather proposes a new framework for critically exploring empowerment. It integrates theoretical, conceptual and empirical findings from the literature and from practice to identify and unpack empowerment's dimensions, tensions and contradictions. The proposed framework for examining empowerment is represented as a 'filebox' of four sections, reflecting four themes of empowerment - its foundations, methods, critical factors and conceptualisations. Each of these sections contains a number of 'filecards' which represent different dimensions of empowerment. Each dimension is explored via a summary, a list of key distinctions and a collection of critical questions. This new approach to examining empowerment suggests that, rather than being denied or over-simplified, the complexity and diversity of empowerment should be celebrated and indeed championed.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Social research,
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Erskine, Angus and Barr, Alan
• Date of Award: 1999
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1999-71605
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 May 2019 14:08
• Last Modified: 19 Oct 2022 16:04
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.71605
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/71605