The Empowerment Approach as a Methodology for Research and Overcoming Social Issues of People, Groups, and Communities in Mutual Activities: Review and Research Framework

Abstract

The article presents the results of a bibliographic and thematic review of the “empowerment” category, the history, key directions and main characteristics of the “empowerment” approach. The empowerment-approach is successfully applied in the world of science and the practice of empowerment of individual, communities, organizations, certain social groups, (women, youth, older people, workers, consumers, patients, minorities, etc.) in psychology, sociology, social work, healthcare, pedagogy, management, politics, economics, technical sciences, and in interdisciplinary discourses. The concept is rarely used in Russian scientific discourse; in political research, it is understood as a struggle for rights and powers, and social and political activism; in pedagogical research and in social work, it is considered as an activation and expansion of the potential resources. There is a wide range of interpretations and discussion of the concept as a goal, value, principle, process, result, method, technology, and strategy. Empowerment creates conditions for the transformation of people, groups, communities, and the social environment in mutual activities based on self-organization and/or supportive facilitation. A characteristic feature of empowerment is the non-linearity, dynamism, multilevel integration of macro-social, meso-social, micro-social, and intrapersonal factors and processes. The levels of individual, group, community, organizational, and institutional empowerment are distinguished. In this paper, we propose the beginning of a discussion about the empowerment approach as a way to study and overcome social problems in mutual activities of people, groups and communities as actors, and transforming agents.