Between Emancipatory Practice and Disciplinary Interventions: Empowerment and Contemporary Social Normativity

Abstract

Over the last decades, empowerment has become one of the defining concepts of twenty-first-century social work practice. Many studies have set out to show its benefits, highlighting a positive view of individuals and their ability to instigate sustainable change in their life and/or community. The concept, however, has been more often praised than it has been critiqued. This article aims to add to critical works on empowerment in analysing its implications from the point of view of contemporary social normativity, informed by the works of Ehrenberg (2010), Rose (1996) and Foucault (1979). In this perspective, we suggest that the ever-present injunctions to autonomy and individual responsibility can serve simultaneously as a goal and as means to empowerment-centred interventions. The line between emancipatory practices and discipline can thus be thin. By postulating that social work extends beyond inter-individual interactions, the relationship between individuals and normative injunctions becomes a highly interesting subject of study that would prove fruitful in future empirical studies.