International Social Work

http://isw.sagepub.com/

Beyond empowerment: Changing local communities

Jessica H. Jnsson
International Social Work 2010 53: 393
DOI: 10.1177/0020872809359867

The online version of this article can be found at:

http://isw.sagepub.com/content/53/3/393

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:
International Association of Schools of Social Work

International Council of Social Welfare

International Federation of Social Workers

Additional services and information for International Social Work can be found at:

Email Alerts: http://isw.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts

Subscriptions: http://isw.sagepub.com/subscriptions

Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav

Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

Citations: http://isw.sagepub.com/content/53/3/393.refs.html

>> Version of Record - May 11, 2010

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

What is This?
Article i s w

International Social Work

53(3) 393406
Beyond The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
empowerment: co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020872809359867

Changing local http://isw.sagepub.com

communities

Jessica H. Jnsson
Mid Sweden University, Sweden

Abstract
This article critically analyses empowerment projects in a local community
in southern India and explores the shortcomings of development projects
aimed at changing living conditions of marginalized people. It is argued that
international social work should move beyond established empowerment
theories and practices and include combating structural barriers in an
emancipatory manner.

Keywords
development, emancipation, empowerment, social work, southern India

In a time of rapid and substantial economic, environmental and social changes

all over the world and a growing demand for and debate on development,
it is important to emphasize that development is not about things or
numbers. It is about people. Globalization and the unequal distribution of
the worlds resources are increasingly including all countries in a global
overwhelming socioeconomic and cultural transformation. This is creating
challenges for policymakers and politicians around the world. Globalization
results in spreading models of modern institutions, such as nation states,
democracy, the capitalist system and its market economy that encompasses
every corner of the globe (Giddens, 1990). Structural transformations, such
as urbanization, modern education and the modern labor market, have

Corresponding author: Jessica H. Jnsson, Department of Social Work, Mid Sweden

University, SE-831 25 stersund, Sweden.
Email: Jessica.jonsson@miun.se

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

394 International Social Work 53(3)

resulted in the transformation of local communities and fewer networks

of local support, including the large families. In many western countries,
the transformation of the family structure and the labor market has already
resulted in increasing the role and intervention of the state in individuals
daily lives.
As a result professional and voluntary social work has occupied a central
role in the life of many people who are the losers in modernization and are
facing difficulties in their lives. The globalization of modernization has, in
Immanuel Wallersteins (1974) words, created a capitalist world system
which forces many non-western countries to introduce social institutions
and organizations in accordance with established western models. The new
organization of social work is not excluded from the westernization process.
Besides, in many non-western countries policymakers and social workers
adopt and implement many criticized professional models of early moder-
nity, to use Ulrich Becks (1999) term. The theoretical and practical chal-
lenges to such models, which have been debated during the last few
decades, are more or less ignored by the modernizing elites of many non-
western countries. The compatibility of these models with local conditions
of social work is a not a matter of scientific and practical discussion in
these countries.
The implementation of western models of social work is often legitimized
by the concept of development, which often relates to economic growth
and higher consumption. Poverty and social problems, such as prostitution,
street children and trafficking, are often described in pathological terms and
as individual problems. Development and modernization ideas in social
work are often connected to the concept of empowerment, introduced by
Freire (1972) in the context of Latin America. The term empowerment
represents the needs and efforts of marginalized groups for a social environ-
ment free of inequalities which disfavour them socially, politically and
economically. However, the term is controversial. The interrelation between
the concept of empowerment and the dominant discourse of development,
as a dominant global and western discourse, is criticized by many scholars
engaged in the post-development and postcolonial debates (Darby and
Paolini, 1994; Escobar, 2000; Harding, 1998). The idea of development is
closely related to a hierarchical colonial understanding of people by dividing
them into the dual categories of developed/modern and non-developed/
traditional (Kamali, 2008). Development theory is Eurocentric, patriar-
chal, exploitative, rooted in European cultures and reflective of a dominant
western world view (Crush, 1995; Escobar, 1995; Gardner and Lewis,
1996; McEwan, 2001; Wilkin, 2000). Escobar means that the development
theories have paternalistic attitudes towards people in non-western countries

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 395

and consider them to be waiting for salvation. He writes that those people
are attached to features of powerlessness, passivity, poverty and ignorance,
usually dark and lacking in historical agency, as if waiting for the (white)
western hand to help (Escobar, 1995: 8).
The dominant model of development and the belief in universal values
have paradoxically generated deep and structural crises, gaps and inequali-
ties in the socioeconomic, cultural and ecological environments. Centuries
of uneven development of modernity resulted in the unequal distribution
of wealth, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, hunger, disease, sanitation
problems, wars and increasing numbers of refugees in many non-western
countries and areas (McMichael, 2008; Melkote and Steeves, 2001; Pathy,
2001; Pearce, 2000).
Influenced by the dominant paradigm of modernity many western and
non-western experts have been engaged in constructing development pro-
grammes and strategies for non-western countries. The strong belief in
western models of modernization and the existence of one modernity,
which excludes variations of modernities, have created many problems for
the development of indigenous and heterogeneous models of modernity
(Eisenstadt, 2000; Kamali, 2006). This also meant constructing social nor-
malities as well as social abnormalities, in accordance with the current
concept of development (Escobar, 1995). The world can therefore be divided
into developed North and non-developed South.
The dominant discourse of development has discouraged people from
asking the important questions such as what kind of world we want to build,
and has focused on how the others in the South can be like us in the North
(Pearce, 2000). This means that the South and its marginalized people can
only reach the developed Us by continuing diffusion of foreign capital,
technology, knowledge and institutions. Accordingly, the forces of develop-
ment are considered external to Southern societies (Pathy, 2001). Such a
categorization of non-western countries as the mirror image of the developed
West runs the risk of ethnocentric intervention which ignores many realities
of those countries, as Said discussed in Orientalism (1978) (see also
Escobar, 1995; Marulasiddaiah, 2000; Melkote and Steeves, 2001).
However, it is of crucial importance to admit that such a Eurocentric under-
standing of modernity has not only been introduced by western scholars and
agents, but also by local westernized intellectuals who consider the West as
the ultimate goal of modernity and development, which have had a negative
impact on many development projects in non-western countries (Kamali,
2006, 2008). Given the global characteristics of modernity and its colonial
past and postcolonial present, many local elites in non-western countries are
highly influenced by westernized ideas of development. One such influence

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

396 International Social Work 53(3)

is the neoliberal ideology concerning the role of the state in welfare organi-
zation, adopted from the USA. This has resulted in structural adjustment pro-
grammes to the neoliberal western capitalism (Mohanty, 2001). Even the field
of social work has become highly influenced by neoliberalism and marketiza-
tion (Dominelli, 1999; Jordan, 2004; Mishra, 1999).
Decreasing the role of the state and family boundaries in society has
resulted in the increasing role of civil society and non-governmental organi-
zations (NGOs), in order to compensate for socioeconomic inequalities and
social problems. NGOs are seen as dynamic and privatized alternatives for
development, democracy and empowerment (Wickramasinghe, 2005). The
expansion of NGOs in the last 20 years as value-driven facilitators of change
has mainly been based on the need for reducing the social costs of economic
liberalization, such as growing social problems. This has taken place in a
milieu of increased fragmentation and competition which has even influ-
enced the field of social work. The liberal understanding of NGOs engage-
ment in combating social problems does not prioritize social change nor see
it necessary (Pearce, 2000). However, NGOs can be actors of social change
by using critical social theory; as well as by learning from practice and dis-
cussions with all parties engaged in development projects, NGOs can be
actors of social change (Pearce, 2000).

Empowerment and emancipation

A term that is used interchangeably within the frame of social work practice
is empowerment, which has been associated with a wide variety of radical
social movements (Askheim, 2003; Askheim and Starrin, 2007; Inglis, 2005;
Mohanty, 2001; OSullivan, 1993; Payne, 2005; Pease and Fook, 1999).
Empowerment started to be used in scientific literature at the end of the 1970s,
related to the womens movement, liberation movements in former colonies,
different kinds of self-help organizations, social activism, social mobilizing,
protest movements, etc. (Pease and Fook, 1999; Solomon, 1976). Empowerment
is often linked to participation, power, control, self-realization and influence
(Askheim and Starrin, 2007; Freire, 1972; Melkote and Steeves, 2001; Payne,
2005; Solomon, 1976). Inherent in this perspective is the view of social
change that acknowledges the constraints imposed by social structures, and at
the same time recognizes the human potential to change both oneself and
society. The process here is seen in terms of collective social activity, as
opposed to the more traditional view of the individual (Vanderplaat, 1998).
Social justice, improved security for people, and greater political and social
equality through mutual support and collective learning can be illustrated as
the very basis of the concept (Freire, 1972; SinghaRoy, 2001).

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 397

However, the concept of empowerment linked to the reinforcement of

social justice has been replaced by the concept of development, where suc-
cessful development is synonymous with economic growth, modernization,
production growth, privatization and consumption. The concept is exercised
in the frame of the global market economy (Mohanty, 2001) in which
international social work has a micro-oriented profile (Askheim, 2003).
Vanderplaat (1998) draws attention to the disempowering characteristics of
the practices of empowerment. Vanderplaat means that the scope of social,
economic and political activities has increasingly been limited to that which
can be validated through scientific and technocratic rules and procedures.
Despite good intentions, such programmes are encouraging people to see
their existence and the solutions to their life problems as merely technical
matters (Vanderplaat, 1998).
In recent years the development of a postmodern critical standpoint in
social work has targeted the concept and practices of empowerment. Without
aiming at defending postmodernism as another metanarrative, we can recog-
nize the contribution of the postmodern critical approach to a more emanci-
patory social work, which challenges the constraints of development and
empowerment approaches (Melkote and Steeves, 2001; Pease and Fook,
1999). It is necessary to rethink empowerment from a postmodern critical
perspective, to confront the paradoxes, dilemmas, limitations and weak-
nesses in metanarratives of modern theories and practices of social work.
The concept of emancipation has widely been used during the anticolo-
nial struggles in order to describe various efforts to obtain political rights or
equality. This indicates that disadvantaged and marginalized people should
get access to the means of power and influence in society and thereby free
themselves from the oppressing and dominating structures and take control
of their own lives (Inglis, 1997). The emancipation of disadvantaged groups
needs the ability to distinguish different types of the exercise of power
(Dominelli, 2002; Leung, 2005; Pease and Fook, 1999; Rowlands, 1998).
As Inglis (1997) argues, there is a distinction between individuals being
empowered within an existing social system and struggling for freedom by
changing the system.
Empowerment involves people developing capacities to act successfully
within the existing system and structures of power, while emancipation
means critically analysing, resisting and challenging structures of power
(Inglis, 1997: 4).
In order to organize successful emancipatory social work for marginalized
groups we have to include the unequal distribution of power and the way
such inequalities are reproduced (Inglis, 1997; Melkote and Steeves, 2001;
Mohanty, 2001; SinghaRoy, 2001). The process of emancipation involves a

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

398 International Social Work 53(3)

continual struggle to reveal the ever-changing nature of power (Inglis, 1997).

We should not look at our lives through an established discourse and pas-
sively accept the way a discourse presents us and our reality. Emancipation
demands engagement in the struggle of the definition of reality and access to
the means of the exercise of power.
In the Indian context, Saraswati (2005) criticizes the empowering
approaches aimed at improving the life situation of those at the margins of
the existing system without really questioning the unequal power dynamics
that creates those inequalities in the first place. The focus of social work
with its established concepts of development and empowerment is often
based on the micro level and the structural properties of society are not a
focus of debate. By considering social problems as merely individual prob-
lems, even the blame of lack of development is put on individuals.
Individuals and structural changes should go hand in hand in order to obtain
the expected results of a project (Dominelli, 2002).
Empowerment projects are also criticized for not being successful in
combating gender inequalities. Saraswati (2005) means that empowerment
projects for women are mainly aimed at changing individuals conditions
instead of changing social and cultural forms of patriarchy that remain the
sites of womens oppression. Improving individual capacities, such as self-
confidence and consciousness, should be combined with the change of
structures that oppress women. It is futile and can also be considered as
unethical for professionals to help solve problems while ignoring the sys-
tematic barriers raised by the society that allow or maintain inequalities
among citizens (Melkote and Steeves, 2001).
Empowerment processes that simply help women to gain access to
resources, but do not aim to redefine existing patriarchal social and political
power structures, can in fact be destructive and disempowering (Afshar,
1998; Leung, 2005; Rowlands, 1998; Saraswati, 2005). Emancipatory proj-
ects must leave a developmental pattern and go beyond pragmatic goals,
such as higher productivity, higher consumption and higher formal education,
and be engaged in social and political actions (Freire, 1972; Melkote and
Steeves, 2001).
Social workers have to consider the power relation of society at the
macro level in their activities, since the macro power is defining and con-
trolling both the social problems and the solutions. For example, social
workers should consider questions such as within which organizations a
project is being carried out, and what opportunities and limitations these
organizations are creating for successful social work (Askheim, 2003;
Dominelli, 2002; Leung, 2005). Both clients and social workers are part of
the network of power relations.

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 399

This article attempts to address the challenges and dilemmas linked to

the concept of empowerment and implementation of development strategies
by studying a local empowerment project in a rural area in southern India.
The project is using empowerment strategies in order to monitor social
change and development for women and child welfare.

Research objectives and method

This study was conducted in the rural areas of southern India where an orga-
nization called SWASTI (Social Work and Social Transformation Institute)
is launching a few empowerment projects. The organization was established
in 1987 as a non-governmental voluntary organization. The main objectives
are social and economic development, improving peoples health and orga-
nizing educational programmes. The most important and established project
concerns childrens and womens welfare in rural areas.
The main objective of the study is to explore the empowering potential
of local projects concerning childrens and womens welfare in rural areas
of southern India. The following research questions have been of impor-
tance for the study: How do individuals participating in the project evaluate
their participation?; Are there any structural hindrances for the achieve-
ment of the objectives of the local project?; Does the project improve
womens position in local community?
Participatory observation and half-structured interviews were used for
data collection which took place from February to June 2008 in the state of
Karnataka in southern India. The following findings are based on interviews
with 20 mothers, four female teachers, one male project leader and two
social workers, a female and a male.

The discourse of development and

empowerment in the project
The project under study is highly influenced by the modernist development
discourse in which the West is considered the model and the ultimate goal
of local and social changes. Social workers consider the participants in the
projects, mainly poor from rural areas, as ignorant, backward, incapable of
finding their way out of poverty and dependent on social services. In discus-
sions concerning education, health and work, education is considered as the
locomotive for change and development. Health has been understood as a
more complex phenomenon because villagers in rural areas have traditional
superstitious ideas about diseases and health. The work issues have been
understood as difficult to deal with due to overpopulation, lack of resources,

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

400 International Social Work 53(3)

lack of work ethics and alienation among the people. The attitudes indicate
that rural areas are marked by illiteracy, ignorance, ill health, unemployment,
tensions and social disintegration.
The attitudes of the responsible persons and social workers in the project
reflect a paternalistic understanding of development where they seem to
believe in an essentialized culture of poverty among the target people of the
project. They considered people from rural areas in general and women par-
ticipating in the project in particular as passive individuals who were not
motivated to change their living conditions. It seems that there is a lack of
any consciousness about the postcolonial and post-developmental critiques
of the established western development discourse.
Social work both in urban and rural areas is still highly influenced by the
former colonial structure and ideology in many ways. The colonial ideolo-
gies and perspectives are still in effect and I found it obvious that there is a
very located sense of whiteness as synonymous with prosperity, beauty,
intelligence and power among respondents. They often glorify the West by
legitimizing the dichotomy of the developed West and undeveloped and
backward countries in the South. Here the people at the top of the project
positioned themselves as belonging to the latter, either as market-oriented or
socialist modernists. There is a substantial adoption of the Wests notion of
development, in which the West is seen as the ultimate goal and the model
of development and progress.
In the majority of cases, the women in the project, all illiterate, claimed
that education is important because they want their children to get a better
life than their poor parents. This is shared by the teachers responsible for
the activities in the day care centres (crches) who mean that education is
decisive for the childrens future. However, there is a discrepancy between
the mothers and the organizations idea about education. For many fami-
lies the major problem is to survive the daily economic challenges. But it
seems that the project leaders are ignorant about this fact. For instance,
many mothers and young people, both men and women, in the community
started educating themselves in the past but had left their education because
of the immediate economic needs of their families. In addition the local
community has not enough jobs for educated people, and those who educate
themselves normally must emigrate towards urban areas in order to get
qualified jobs.
This indicates a dilemma in the mothers, teachers and project leaders
understanding of the emancipatory role of education. If education is not
related to a labour market and social environment which provide better
opportunities for educated individuals it gradually loses its importance.
Changing individual conditions must also include structural dimensions in

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 401

order to make the social transformation and emancipation of disadvantaged

and marginalized people possible.
One of the structural problems which differentiates the local communities
of Karnataka state is the uneven development of Indian society. A common
understanding among everybody interviewed in the study in particular, and
community members in general, was their dissatisfaction with the central gov-
ernments socioeconomic policies towards rural areas. The respondents claim
that more social and economic investments and development programmes are
conducted in urban areas, which have resulted in the unequal distribution of
resources, such as welfare investments, the supply of water and electricity, and
investments in infrastructure, health care and education.

Networking and the position of women

Efforts have been made to conduct monthly mothers meetings, in order to
educate and motivate mothers to take responsibility in the areas of child
care, personal health and hygiene, diseases, first aid and vaccinations, among
others. Teachers are working hard to organize meetings and are having reg-
ular discussions with the mothers and other villagers. The teachers believe
that educated mothers understand better the needs of their children.
A few women who regularly participate in the meetings claim that this type
of networking is very important. Kavita, one of the participating mothers,
expresses her own experiences of the meetings: Before starting participating
in these meetings I never raised my voice, and never spoke to other people
that I had no relation with. Now, it is different. Now I like to participate in
meetings and interact with people, it is giving me good self esteem.
However, there was no clear understanding of the objectives of the
mothers meetings and they seemed top-down organized. The respondents
showed a strong loyalty to the project, which was also confirmed by the
leaders of the project. As a basis for the evaluation of the project, a social
worker set the agenda of the meetings and the teachers provided monthly
reports. From my point of view, the evaluation meetings tended to be a formal
follow-up of the monthly activities. This maybe was one of the reasons why
many women did not participate in the meetings.
Interviews with mothers who did not participate in the meetings indicates
that their voices were not considered important. The goals of the mothers
meetings seem to indicate a view in which mothers are considered as passive
receivers of help from the project. The meetings were formed by self-appointed
experts who were convinced that they knew best the needs of the mothers,
who mainly were considered as not having proper knowledge of child care,
health care and related issues. This is among the paternalistic characteristics of

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

402 International Social Work 53(3)

many established development and empowerment projects, which have been

highly criticized by postcolonial and post-development theories. The mothers
are reduced to a homogeneous group of women seen as powerless, passive,
poor and ignorant by the more powerful actors, themselves influenced by the
Eurocentric, patriarchal and exploitive development perspectives, which
were daily expressed, and is what Mohanty (2003) calls the colonial image of
the third-world women. This image was obviously internalized by social
workers and teachers.
Another networking project assisted by SWASTI is self-help groups in
Karnataka. A majority of the interviewed mothers and teachers are engaged
in these networks. In the village of Hirekumbalagunte alone there are 32
self-help groups, almost all of which consist of women. All of the groups
get loans from Grameen Bank, the micro-credit organization which pro-
vides small loans in the form of micro-credits. SWASTIs staff is partly
assisting and coordinating the meetings of self-help groups in the areas.
Self-help groups aim to bring about social and economic improvements in
their areas. Participants are generally positive about these groups. Grameen
Bank is an alternative way for poor people to get loans for different
projects, which can provide the women, the family and the community
better economic status and improve living conditions. Women participating
in self-help groups participate in weekly gatherings, exchanging knowledge
and experiences and creating a network. However, the self-help groups
and participating women are facing many structural barriers in their
emancipatory efforts.
As Priyanka, a teacher puts it: All of the women who are members are
of course strong and intelligent but they cannot manage tasks as they are
illiterate, always depending on a literate, to maintain the reports required by
the bank.
This creates a huge problem for many women, as they cannot indepen-
dently take care of their loans. Another structural problem has to do with the
power structure in the villages based on gender relations. As Asha, another
teacher, says: Most of the husbands of the members of self-help groups and
other men in the villages do not appreciate that the women should get power
over financial capital through micro credits, which is a big problem.
Micro-credits, which are reinforcing the economic position of women in
the local communities, are making problems for the established patriarchal
system. However, the opposition of men to micro-credits is not the only
hindrance for the development of self-help groups. Sita, one of the respon-
sible women, complains that members are mainly interested in discussing
finances, and are not ready to discuss any other issues such as gender,
empowerment or family planning.

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 403

Although Grameen Bank claims that it is working for the socioeconomic

development of local communities, the women in self-help groups are not
confirming Grameen Banks claim. According to the interviewees the bank
only uses the discourse of socioeconomic development as a camouflage for
its real interest in increasing their capital. Although micro-credits and other
empowerment strategies launched through self-help groups are leading to
some economic improvements for the families, it is not enough to change
other structural hindrances based on the unequal power relations which create
the inequalities for the women and their families in the first place. Social,
political and cultural forms of patriarchy, which make important sites of
womens oppression, are not touched. The economic efforts for improving
womens economic positions should lead to social and political empower-
ment, otherwise they run the risk of reproducing and even reinforcing a
discriminatory patriarchal system. Women are increasingly forced to leave
their housework in order to bring money into the family. However, the
money is mainly used by the men, who are responsible for the families
economies. As Venkatesh, a young man from the village, says, In some
cases the credits are used for weddings, shopping jewels, alcohol, gambling
or for medical and hospital expenditures.
More income for the families leads to higher consumption, which is
difficult for them to sustain in the future when they have to pay back the
loans with interest. By understanding development as mainly economic
growth and higher consumption, the projects which I studied in Karnataka
did not question the very causes of inequalities in villages and therefore
the structural mechanisms of inequalities remain untouched.

Contradictions of development projects and

challenges for social work
This study shows that the empowerment projects in the rural areas of southern
India follow the established modernist understanding of development and
empowerment. The empowerment projects and interventions emphasize the
direct transfer of relevant or appropriate knowledge, skills and resources to
marginalized groups. This is mainly done within the existing socioeconomic
and cultural structures of power. There is a lack of critical analytical and
practical tools for resisting the structural mechanisms of oppression in order
to foster emancipatory ideals and practices.
The lack of a postcolonial and critical perspective results in defining
poor people as deviant generally, and women as a helpless group in need of
social services in particular. Social workers who seek to empower others

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

404 International Social Work 53(3)

through a process of labelling, targeting and providing services need self-

reflexivity to avoid objectifying the others and reproducing social injus-
tices. If empowerment strategies seek to have an emancipatory effect on
people who are marginalized and discriminated against, they must go
beyond developmental goals, such as higher productivity, higher consump-
tion and higher formal education. Instead social work practitioners have to
consider the social structures, barriers and power relations which maintain
inequalities and injustices, which limit individuals opportunities to improve
their living conditions in society, and increase their access to the means of
power and influence in society.

Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Masoud Kamali for his valuable advice and comments.Thanks also
to Mona Livholts for her helpful comments on the paper.

References
Afshar, H., ed. (1998) Women and Empowerment: Illustrations from the Third
World. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Askheim, O.P. (2003) Empowerment as Guidance for Professional Social Work: An
Act of Balancing on a Slack Rope, European Journal of Social Work 6(3): 22940.
Askheim, O.P. and B. Starrin, eds (2007) Empowerment i teori och praktik
(Empowerment in Theory and Practice). Malm: Gleerup.
Beck, U. (1999) What is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Crush, J. (1995) Power of Development. London: Routledge.
Darby, P. and A.J. Paolini (1994) Bridging International Relations and Postcolonialism,
Alternative 19: 37197.
Dominelli, L. (1999) Neo-liberalism, Social Exclusion and Welfare Clients in a
Global Economy, International Journal of Social Welfare 8(1): 1422.
Dominelli, L. (2002) Anti-oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice. New York:
Palgrave Mcmillan.
Eisenstadt, S.N., ed. (2000) Multiple Modernities. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction
Publishers.
Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the
Third World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Escobar, A. (2000) Place, Power and Networks in Globalization and Post-development,
in K. Wilkins (ed.) Redeveloping Communication for Social Change: Theory,
Practice, and Power, pp. 16372. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogik fr frtryckta (Pedagogy for the Oppressed). Stockholm:
Gummessons.

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

Jnsson 405

Gardner, K. and D. Lewis (1996) Anthropology, Development and the Postmodern

Challenge. London: Pluto Press.
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
Harding, S. (1998) Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialism, Feminism, and
Epistemologies. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Inglis, T. (1997) Empowerment and Emancipation, Adult Education Quarterly
48(1): 317.
Jordan, B. (2004) Emancipatory Social Work? Opportunity or Oxymoron, British
Journal of Social Work 34(1): 519.
Kamali, M. (2006) Multiple Modernities: Civil Society and Islam: The Case of Iran
and Turkey. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Kamali, M. (2008) Racial Discrimination: Institutional Patterns and Politics.
New York: Routledge.
Leung, L. (2005) Empowering Women in Social Work Practice: A Hong Kong
Case, International Social Work 48(4): 42939.
McEwan, C. (2001) Postcolonialism, Feminism and Development: Intersections
and Dilemmas, Progress in Development Studies 1(2): 93111.
McMichael, P. (2008) Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective.
London: Sage.
Marulasiddaiah, H.M. (2000) The Elephant in the Mirror, Karnataka chapter.
Bangalore: Indian Academy of Social Sciences.
Melkote, R.S. and H.L. Steeves (2001) Communication for Development in the
Third World. London: Sage.
Mishra, R. (1999) Globalization and the Welfare State. Northampton, MA: Edward
Elgar.
Mohanty, C.T. (2003) Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing
Solidarity. London and Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Mohanty, M. (2001) On the Concept of Empowerment, in D.K. SinghaRoy (ed.)
Social Development and the Empowerment of Marginalised Groups: Perspectives
and Strategies, pp. 2231. New Delhi: Sage.
OSullivan, D. (1993) Commitment, Educative Action and Adults. Aldershot: Avebury.
Pathy, J. (2001) Towards an Alternative Paradigm of Development, in D.K. SinghaRoy
(ed.) Social Development and the Empowerment of Marginalised Groups:
Perspectives and Strategies, pp. 5166. New Delhi: Sage.
Payne, M. (2005) Modern Social Work Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pearce, J. (2000) Development, NGOs, and Civil Society: The Debate and Its
Future, in D. Eede (ed.) Development, NGOs and Civil Society: Selected Essays
from Development in Practice, pp. 1543. Oxford: Oxfam.
Pease, B. and J. Fook (1999) Transforming Social Work Practice: Postmodern Critical
Perspectives. London, New York: Routledge.

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011

406 International Social Work 53(3)

Rowlands, J. (1998) A Word of the Times, but What Does it Mean? Empowerment
in the Discourse and Practice of Development, in H. Afshar (ed.) Women and
Empowerment: Illustrations from the Third World, pp. 1134. Basingstoke:
Macmillan.
Said, E. (1978) Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Saraswati, R. (2005) Limited Options Rethinking Womens Empowerment
Projects in Development Discourses: A Case from Rural India, Gender
Technology and Development 9(2): 25371.
SinghaRoy, D.K. (2001) Critical Issues in Grassroots Mobilisation and Collective
Action, in D.K SinghaRoy (ed.) Social Development and the Empowerment of
Marginalised Groups: Perspectives and Strategies, pp. 82110. New Delhi: Sage.
Solomon, B. (1976) Black Empowerment: Social Work in Oppressed Communities.
New York: Columbia University Press.
Vanderplaat, M. (1998) Empowerment, Emancipation and Health Promotion
Policy, Canadian Journal of Sociology 23(1): 7190.
Wallerstein, I. (1974) The Modern World-System. New York: Academic Press.
Wickramasinghe, N. (2005) The Idea of Civil Society in the South: Imaginings,
Transplants, Designs, Science and Society 69(3): 45886.
Wilkin, K.G., ed. (2000) Redeveloping Communication for Social Change: Theory,
Practice and Power. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield.

Author biography
Jessica H. Jnsson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Social Work, Mid Sweden
University, Sweden.

Downloaded from isw.sagepub.com at University of Wollongong on November 30, 2011