Abstract
In this chapter, Elaine Unterhalter considers four brief moments in the history of the concept of ‘empowerment’ and links these with the capability approach. To ‘empower’ in a pessimistic sense dates to the English civil war and was initially used to describe the illicit exercise of authority on behalf of powerful actors. In the twentieth century, ‘empowerment’ came to be reframed optimistically to describe Black Power and liberation theology, and later a kind of solidarity and activism associated with the women’s movement. Since then the term has been increasingly criticised by feminists and social activists due to its co-optation by the status quo, which typically involves suppressing its transformative potential. Unterhalter draws on Gramsci’s notion of hegemony to help explain this process. But her main contribution is to show how three conceptual links with the capability approach (along with reflexive comparative education) can bolster the notion of empowerment by helping to ensure that it continues to engage with equality and social justice. The three conceptual connections in question involve emphasising the importance of context and human diversity for articulating capabilities, stressing the role of human agency in promoting fairness and solidarity, and embracing deliberative democracy and participation for evaluative purposes.
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Acknowledgements
Many people have helped me think about the ideas for this chapter, which has developed from earlier versions, initially written as a keynote address for the gender symposium at the CIES conference, Montreal, 2011, and reworked as a conference paper delivered at the BAICE conference, Cambridge, 2012. I owe special thanks to David Clark for his encouragement to keep on working up the ideas and most generous assistance with all aspects of bringing the manuscript to completion. I am enormously grateful for this level of friendship and academic solidarity. Thanks also to Shailaja Fennell and an unnamed referee for some astute suggestions on building the argument, to Gabriella Pinto for alerting me to the importance of Gramsci in thinking through the process of co-optation, to Joe Crawford for helping me to think through some of the history of empowerment, and to Peter Jarvis for telling me about Highlander.
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Unterhalter, E. (2019). Balancing Pessimism of the Intellect and Optimism of the Will: Some Reflections on the Capability Approach, Gender, Empowerment, and Education. In: Clark, D.A., Biggeri, M., Frediani, A.A. (eds) The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation. Rethinking International Development series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-35230-9_4
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