The concept of empowerment is hard to miss in the field of social work, (health)care and welfare. Here, empowerment seems to stand for the autonomy and competence of the individual, who learns to make a positive contribution to society. In this book, Richard de Brabander traces the evolution of the notion of empowerment: whereas its roots can be found in the civil rights movement and its fight against oppression and injustice, nowadays the term is mostly used in strategies to make people adapt to dominant norms. While it should motivate us to resist patterns of exclusion and to create new ways of living, today that meaning seems to have turned into its opposite.

This book is included in DOAB.