Empowerment and Emancipation

Empowerment has become a key concept for disabled people and the disabled people's movement because of its associations with liberation and emancipation. [Page 594]Disabled people's understandings of the idea highlight the essentially political nature of the concept and its focus on power and the redistribution of power. The idea of empowerment has also come to much wider prominence in recent years. This reflects broader interest in a concept that transcends conventional politics and ideology, addresses both the “personal” and the “political,” and seeks to unite the two. Empowerment has become an important concept in public policy as well as personal living. It has become central in political, public, and social policy and educational, cultural, sexual, personal, and managerial discourses, as well as entering popular usage. This has been an international development. At the same time, there have also been growing concerns that the term has been reduced to jargon through overuse and lack of clarity.

The term empowerment can be used to refer to a process, a goal, or a combination of the two. While disabled people's definition of the term is closely connected with emancipation, this is not true of all interpretations placed upon it. There is little agreement about the definition of the term. Widespread concerns have been expressed about its meaning being diluted and distorted. But the contradictory and diverse meanings attached to empowerment say more about the complex origins of the idea than its practical or philosophical limitations. Inherent tensions in the concept are highlighted by its traditional dictionary definition, which is framed in terms of “licensing,” “authorizing,” or “giving power” to someone. The organization or individual “empowered” in this way is only an intermediary in the process, and the nature, extent, and goals of empowerment continue to be determined and circumscribed by the original powerholder.

Such a definition is far removed from the emancipatory interpretation of empowerment that has been placed on it by the disabled people's and other liberational and new social movements. It is helpful to remember that disabled people's discourse about empowerment is only one of a number of such discourses. In conventional terms, it is far from being the dominant one. The idea and practice of empowerment in relation to disability and disabled people can only be understood adequately in this broader context. The predominant discussions about empowerment in recent times have been consumerist and professional ones.

Many different strands can be identified in the development of the idea and usage of empowerment. There are self-help, liberational, professional, managerialist, and market models of empowerment. They are in complex relationship with each other. While there are overlaps between them, there are also important differences. Empowerment has become the site of key struggles over the nature and purpose of politics, policy, services, identity, and professional intervention. That is why its meanings are heavily contested and it is important to recognize its regulatory as well as liberatory potential.

The origins of modern discussions about empowerment are generally traced to the U.S. black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. They are also associated with theories and practices relating to feminist, (international) black liberation and radical politics of the 1960s and 1970s. Disabled people's discussions of empowerment are linked with these. Other key understandings of empowerment have subsequently developed, and disabled people's interest in empowerment needs to be considered in relation to these to avoid confusion. These approaches to empowerment—the popular, consumerist, and professional—all have had a bearing on the activities and debates of disabled people, but all have also been distinct from disabled people's own conceptualization of empowerment.

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