Citizen Participation & Empowerment Chapter 12 Fall 20101

2 Why have you gotten involved in the past?

3 Citizen Participation Themes Fall Participation in community decision-making 2. Citizen Empowerment 3. Participation & empowerment are related to Sense of Community

Citizen Participation Fall  “A process in which individuals take part in decision-making in the institutions, programs, & environments that affect them” (text, p. 402)  Participation/Efficiency Balance

Participation: The Means-Ends Distinction Fall  Means: way of improving community conditions  Commitment to a decision/outcome is greater if you have participated in it  Ends: essential quality of democracy  Its own reward

Empowerment Fall  “An intentional, ongoing process centered in the local community, involving mutual respect, caring, & group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of resources gain greater access to & control over those resources.”  Accomplished with others, not alone

Qualities of Empowerment Fall Multilevel Ecological Construct Individuals: personal sense of efficacy Organizations Empowered Orgs: know how to create changes in community Empowering Orgs: know how to empower people in org Communities: competent community 2. Levels are Independent feeling empowered ≠ being empowered 3. Bottom Up Approach

Contrasting Empowerment & Prevention Fall  Rappaport’s (1981) Distinction: Needs Perspective (prevention) vs. Rights Perspective (empowerment)  Different Origins  Needs perspective from helping professionals  Rights perspective from activists, perspective from activists, community organizers

Characteristics of Needs Perspective Fall Professional as expert 2. Clients lack competence which they need 3. Risk factors are in the individual 4. Programs developed in one context can be transported across contexts 5. Organizations & communities are sites where intervention occurs, not objects of intervention

Characteristics of Rights Perspective Fall  Focus on what rights people have to control their lives  Collaborating with people rather than being expert  Assuming people have competencies but lack environmental opportunities to develop them  Risk factors are in environment  Programs need to be developed locally to be responsive to local situation  Organizations & communities are object of intervention

Power: Brief Review Fall  Involves ability to affect external events/ forces/ decisions  Best understood as aspect of relationships or interrelationships (can be resisted as well as acquiesced to)  Contextual: may have power in some situations/ roles & not others

Power’s Multiple Forms Fall Types of Power  Power Over - capacity to dominate others  Power To - ability for self-direction to pursue goals  Power From - ability to resist power exerted by others 2. Integrative Power: capacity to build groups, bind people together, & inspire loyalty (“people power”) (e.g., Ghandi)

Power Fall  Reward Power —controlling valued rewards that can be used to shape others’ behavior  Coercive Power —capacity to punish  Legitimate Power —based on role/position of one over another  Expert Power —based on knowledge/skill  Referent Power —based on interpersonal connection or a shared social identity

Participation in Neighborhood Orgs & Sense of Community Fall  Neighborhood organizations as mediators between citizens & higher-ups  Mediators are go-betweens/ liaisons  Citizen participation ranges from attending meetings to holding leadership positions

How Community Orgs Empower Members Fall Empowering (member influence) vs. Empowered Orgs (community influence)

Qualities of Empowering Orgs Fall Solidarity  Group-based, strengths-based belief system  Social Support  Shared, Inspiring Leadership 2. Member Participation  Participatory Niches, Opportunity Role Structures  Task Focus  Participatory rewards for volunteers who make the org possible  Promoting diversity  Fostering intergroup collaboration

Dilemmas in Creating Empowering Orgs Fall  Challenge of success  Growth/Resources affect initial sense of mission/solidarity  Paradox of empowerment  Can one group empower another?  Can old social regularities be overcome?  HSC experience

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