Abstract

SANCHEZ VIDAL, Alípio. Is Empowerment Feasible in Times of Crisis?: Rethinking Human Development in the New Century. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2013, vol.12, n.1, pp.285-300. ISSN 1657-9267.

A reflection is made on the feasibility of psychosocial empowerment today. After describing the socio-psychological effects of the current economic crisis, a proposal of the main questions implied in empowerment (ideological-theoretical meaning, practical feasibility, operational level, subjective-objective character) is made, and difficulties of microsocial empowerment examined in the face of its operational divergences with macrosocial power (concentrated, opaque, distant, and incomprehensible) in postindustrial societies. Some challenges for community psychology are then pointed out reviewing the limitations of its -explanatory-ideological, technical, personal-moral, institutional- means in relation to the ambitious ends of empowerment, showing, finally, the three core components of the empowering process (subjective awareness, interaction-organization, social action) and the limitations (and possibilities) of psychosocial action regarding them.

Keywords : Empowerment; community psychology; economic and social crisis; macrosocial power; Psycosocial Means; Components of Empowerment; Spain.

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