Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:11:30.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Now Would Be a Great Time to Raise Your Voice

Empowerment as a Critical Community Psychology Concept

from Part I - Foundational Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

By
Kip Thompson  and
Alexis M. Benjamin
Edited by
Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
Affiliation:
Long Island University, New York
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the nature of empowerment and how individuals harness this resource to effect change in local, national, and global settings. We start by examining four examples of empowerment in context and how history developed these ideas into social movements. Next, the construct of power is defined, and the reader is exposed to various instruments that powerful individuals often use to effect change. Specific methods for empowerment are detailed, followed by multicultural perspectives and examples in empowerment. The chapter concludes with suggestions for the reader on how they might develop their own social movements.

Keywords

Empowermentsocial mediacommunity organizingmulticulturalism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Community Psychology
Interdisciplinary and Contextual Perspectives
 , pp. 48 - 69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altman, I., & Rogoff, B. (1987). World views in psychology: Trait, interactional, organismic, and transactional perspectives. In Stokols, D. & Altman, I. (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 7–40). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Alvarez, P. (2019, December 11). House votes to provide a pathway to citizenship for thousands of undocumented farmworkers. CNN. www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/politics/immigration-agriculture-bill/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
American Psychological Association. (2017). Multicultural guidelines: An ecological approach to context, identity, and intersectionality. www.apa.org/about/policy/multicultural-guidelines.pdfGoogle Scholar
Banda, M. (2015, July). A warrior’s cry against child marriage. [Video]. TED Conferences. www.ted.com/talks/memory_banda_a_warrior_s_cry_against_child_marriage?language=enGoogle Scholar
Betancourt, T. S., Frounfelker, R., Mishra, T., Hussein, A., & Falzarano, R. (2015). Addressing health disparities in the mental health of refugee children and adolescents through community based participatory research: A study in 2 communities. American Journal of Public Health, 105(53), S475–S482. doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302504Google Scholar
Bogel-Burroughs, N. (2020, May 14). Months after Louisville police kill woman in her home, governor calls for review. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/breonna-taylor-louisville-shooting.htmlGoogle Scholar
Botelho, G. (2012, May 23). What happened the night Trayvon Martin died. CNN. www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/justice/florida-teen-shooting-details/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Breland, A. (2018, July 29). How Twitter vaulted “Abolish ICE” into the mainstream. The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/technology/399303-how-twitter-vaulted-abolish-ice-into-the-mainstreamGoogle Scholar
Brodsky, A. E. (2017). Bridging the dialectic: Diversity, psychological sense of community, and inclusion. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59(3–4), 269–271. doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12135CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brodsky, A. E., & Cattaneo, L. B. (2013). A transconceptual model of empowerment and resilience: Divergence, convergence and interactions in kindred community concepts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 52(3–4), 333–346. doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9599-xGoogle Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Broomfield, M. (2017, January 23). Women’s March against Donald Trump is the largest day of protests in US history, say political scientists. The Independent. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/womens-march-anti-donald-trump-womens-rights-largest-protest-demonstration-us-history-political-a7541081.htmlGoogle Scholar
Canfield, D. (2018, February 23). Parkland shooting survivors talk gun control and conspiracies on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Entertainment Weekly. https://ew.com/tv/2018/02/23/parkland-survivors-ellen/Google Scholar
Carlsen, A., Salam, M., Miller, C. C., et al. (2018, October 29). #MeToo brought down 201 powerful men. Nearly half of their replacements are women. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/23/us/metoo-replacements.html?searchResultPosition=1Google Scholar
Cave, A. A. (2003). Abuse of power: Andrew Jackson and the Indian removal act of 1830. The Historian, 65(6), 1330–1353. doi.org/10.1111/j.0018-2370.2003.00055.xGoogle Scholar
Chabon, M. (2000). The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay: A novel. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Chavez, T. A., Fernandez, I. T., Hipolito-Delgado, C. P., & Rivera, E. T. (2016). Unifying liberation psychology and humanistic values to promote social justice in counseling. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 55(3), 166–182. doi.org/10.1002/johc.12032Google Scholar
Chi, C.-C. (2001). Capitalist expansion and indigenous land rights: Emerging environmental justice issues in Taiwan. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2(2), 135–153. doi.org/10.1080/14442210110001706145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chuck, E., Johnson, A., & Siemaszko, C. (2018, February 14). 17 killed in mass shooting at high school in Parkland, Florida. NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-respond-shooting-parkland-florida-high-school-n848101Google Scholar
Cincinnati Action for Housing Now. (n.d.). Organizing in the time of physical distancing. https://cincihomeless.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/organizing-in-the-time-of-physical-distancing-.pdfGoogle Scholar
City of Chicago. (2020, March 18). Mayor Lightfoot announces temporary suspension of debt collection, ticketing and towing practices to provide relief in response to the COVID-19 outbreak [Press release]. www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2020/march/SuspensionTicketingDebtCollection.htmlGoogle Scholar
City News Service. (2019, December 4). Julian Castro joins Black Lives Matter protest of LAPD shooting. https://patch.com/california/hollywood/julian-castro-join-black-lives-matter-protest-lapd-shootingGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. (2019, January 8). Trump declares a “growing humanitarian and security crisis” on the border in address to the nation. NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-declares-growing-humanitarian-security-crisis-border-address-nation-n956466Google Scholar
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S. (2008). Sociocultural factors, resilience, and coping: Support for a culturally sensitive measure of resilience. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(3), 197–212. doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.02.004Google Scholar
Clauss-Ehlers, C. S., Chiriboga, D. A., Hunter, S. J., Roysircar, G., & Tummala-Narra, P. (2019). APA Multicultural Guidelines executive summary: Ecological approach to context, identity, and intersectionality. American Psychologist, 74(2), 232–244. doi.org/10.1037/amp0000382Google Scholar
Cummings, W. (2018, March 23). Stoneman Douglas shooting survivors calling for gun control land ‘Time’ cover. USA Today. www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/03/22/stoneman-douglas-survivors-time-magazine-cover/451715002/Google Scholar
Cunningham, C., & Stanley, F. (2003). Indigenous by definition, experience, or world view: Links between people, their land, and culture need to be acknowledged. British Medical Journal, 327(7412), 403–404. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7412.403Google Scholar
Davidson, H. (2021, January 6). Dozens of Hong Kong pro-democracy figures arrested in sweeping crackdown. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/dozens-of-hong-kong-pro-democracy-figures-arrested-in-sweeping-crackdownGoogle Scholar
Department of Homeland Security. (n.d.). Immigration and customs enforcement. Retrieved May 25, 2020, from www.dhs.gov/topic/immigration-and-customs-enforcementGoogle Scholar
Donald Trump is deporting fewer people than Barack Obama did. (2017, December 14). The Economist. www.economist.com/united-states/2017/12/14/donald-trump-is-deporting-fewer-people-than-barack-obama-didGoogle Scholar
Douglas, J. A., Grills, C. T., Villanueva, S., & Subica, A. M. (2016). Empowerment praxis: Community organizing to redress systemic health disparities. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58(3–4), 488–498. doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12101CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Enn, R. (2012). Indigenous empowerment through collective learning. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 6(3), 149–161. doi.org/10.1108/17504971211253994CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, D. R., Dow, D. M., & Ray, R. (2017). Intersectionality takes it to the streets: Mobilizing across diverse interests for the Women’s March. Science Advances, 3(9), 1–8. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao1390Google Scholar
Gabbatt, A. (2018, July 6). The growing Occupy ICE movement: “We’re here for the long haul.” The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/06/occupy-ice-movement-new-york-louisville-portlandGoogle Scholar
Garson, H. S. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: A biography. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Godfrey, E. (2018, July 11). What “Abolish ICE” actually means. The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/what-abolish-ice-actually-means/564752/Google Scholar
The government shutdown will hit home after Christmas with many federal offices shuttered. (2018, December 25). The Associated Press. www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-government-shutdown-20181225-story.htmlGoogle Scholar
Graham, D. A. (2015, October 16). Black Lives Matter is speaking Bernie Sanders’ language. The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/10/black-lives-matter-and-bernie-sanders-search-for-a-common-language/411001/Google Scholar
Griffiths, J., & Jiang, S. (2020, May 22). Beijing to propose hugely controversial security law in Hong Kong. CNN. www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/asia/hong-kong-npc-article-23-intl-hnk/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
“Gun violence is an epidemic”: MSD survivor testifies on Capitol Hill. (2019, February 6). The Associated Press. www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/parkland-survivor-testifies-gun-violence-capitol-hill/38/Google Scholar
Harris, A. (2018, October 15). She founded Me Too. Now she wants to move past the trauma. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/arts/tarana-burke-metoo-anniversary.html?searchResultPosition=1Google Scholar
Herman, D. F. (1978). The rape culture. In Freeman, J. (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective (pp. 41–63). Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.Google Scholar
The Hong Kong protests explained in 100 and 500 words. (2019, November 28). BBC News. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49317695Google Scholar
Jan, T. (2020, May 10). Economic pain falls hardest on minorities, less-educated. The Washington Post, G2.Google Scholar
Jennings, H. (1937). Structure of leadership-development and sphere of influence. Sociometry, 1(1/2), 99–143. doi.org/10.2307/2785262CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, A. (2018, February 20). Arrests of undocumented immigrants in Boston are up 50 percent. Boston Globe. www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/20/arrests-undocumented-immigrants-boston-percent/6JXkdwmyXFGRaD4VJe2tEL/story.htmlGoogle Scholar
Johnson, T. (2018, November 1). Oprah Winfrey campaigns for gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Georgia. Variety. https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/oprah-campaigns-stacey-abrams-georgia-1203017317/Google Scholar
Keller, J., Mendes, K., & Ringrose, J. (2018). Speaking ‘unspeakable things’: Documenting digital feminist responses to rape culture. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(1), 22–36. doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2016.1211511Google Scholar
Kia‐Keating, M., Santacrose, D., & Liu, S. (2017). Photography and social media use in community based participatory research with youth: Ethical considerations. American Journal of Community Psychology, 60(3–4), 375–384. doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12189Google Scholar
Kloos, B., Hill, J., Thomas, E., et al. (2021). Community psychology: Linking individuals and communities (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Langone, A. (2018, March 25). These photos show how big the March For Our Lives crowds were across the country. Time Magazine. https://time.com/5214706/march-for-our-lives-us-photos/Google Scholar
Lee, Y., & Schachter, H. L. (2019). Exploring the relationship between trust in government and citizen participation. International Journal of Public Administration, 42(5), 405–416. doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2018.1465956Google Scholar
Leonard, J. (2011). Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory to understand community partnerships: A historical case study of one urban high school. Urban Education, 46(5), 987–1010. doi.org/10.1177/0042085911400337CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson-Waldman, R., & Hinkle, H. (2018, July 30). The Abolish ICE movement explained. Brennan Center for Justice. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/abolish-ice-movement-explainedGoogle Scholar
Lind, D. (2018, June 21). What Obama did with migrant families vs. what Trump is doing. Vox. www.vox.com/2018/6/21/17488458/obama-immigration-policy-family-separation-borderGoogle Scholar
Lussenhop, J. (2016, March 16). Chicago prosecutor loses her fight with Black Lives Matter. BBC News. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35817890Google Scholar
Luthar, S. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2000). The construct of resilience: Implications for interventions and social policies. Development and Psychopathology, 12(4), 857–885.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
March For Our Lives Highlights: Students protesting guns say ‘enough is enough.’ (2018, March 24). The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html?searchResultPosition=1Google Scholar
McCarthy, T. (Director). (2015). Spotlight [Film]. Participant Media.Google Scholar
McElwee, S. (2018, August 4). The power of ‘Abolish ICE’. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/opinion/sunday/abolish-ice-ocasio-cortez-democrats.html?searchResultPosition=1Google Scholar
McLaughlin, E. C. (2014, August 15). What we know about Michael Brown’s shooting. CNN. www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/us/missouri-ferguson-michael-brown-what-we-know/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
Noffsinger, M. A., Pfefferbaum, B., Pfefferbaum, R. L., Sherrieb, K., & Norris, F. H. (2012). The burden of disaster: Part I. Challenges and opportunities within a child’s social ecology. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 14(1), 3–13.Google Scholar
Nour, N. M. (2006). Health consequences of child marriage in Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(11), 1644–1649. doi.org/10.3201/eid1211.060510Google Scholar
O’Leary, L. (2019, June 25). ‘Children were dirty, they were scared, and they were hungry’: An immigration attorney describes what she witnessed at the border. The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/06/child-detention-centers-immigration-attorney-interview/592540/Google Scholar
Open Government Partnership. (2020, May). Collecting open government approaches to COVID-19. www.opengovpartnership.org/collecting-open-government-approaches-to-covid-19/Google Scholar
Panter‐Brick, C., Hadfield, K., Dajani, R., et al. (2018). Resilience in context: A brief and culturally grounded measure for Syrian refugee and Jordanian host‐community adolescents. Child Development, 89(5), 1803–1820. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12868Google Scholar
Parker, N. (2017, December 6). Who is Tarana Burke? Meet the woman who started the Me Too movement a decade ago. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. www.ajc.com/news/world/who-tarana-burke-meet-the-woman-who-started-the-too-movement-decade-ago/i8NEiuFHKaIvBh9ucukidK/Google Scholar
Patel, J. K. (2019, January 16). A typical federal worker has missed $5,000 in pay from the shutdown so far. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/16/us/politics/federal-shutdown-salaries.htmlGoogle Scholar
Perano, U. (2020, June 7). Black Lives Matter co-founder explains “Defund the police” slogan. Axios. www.axios.com/defund-police-black-lives-matter-7007efac-0b24-44e2-a45c-c7f180c17b2e.htmlGoogle Scholar
Raj, A. (2010). When the mother is a child: The impact of child marriage on the health and human rights of girls. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 95(11), 931–935. doi.org/10.1136/adc.2009.178707Google Scholar
Reyes, J. R. (2018, March 26). Immigration detention: Recent trends and scholarship. Center for Migration Studies. https://cmsny.org/publications/virtualbrief-detention/Google Scholar
Rezendes, M. (2002, January 6). Church allowed abuse by priest for years. The Boston Globe. http://archive.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/archive/stories/010602_geoghan.htmGoogle Scholar
Rojas, R., Mervosh, S., & Fausset, R. (2020, May 11). Investigators call evidence in the Ahmaud Arbery shooting “extremely upsetting.” The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/us/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.htmlGoogle Scholar
Rubio, P. F. (2016). Organizing a wildcat: The United States postal strike of 1970. Labor History, 57(5), 565–587. doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2016.1239881Google Scholar
Sarlin, B. (2018, June 30). This Democrat is writing a bill to ‘abolish ICE.’ Here’s how it would work. NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/congressman-wants-abolish-ice-we-asked-him-how-it-would-n887406Google Scholar
Stevens, J. P. (2018, March 27). John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment. The New York Times, A23. www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.htmlGoogle Scholar
Torales, J., Castaldelli-Maia, J., & Ventriglio, A. (2017). Digital psychiatry and digital psychology: Beyond “traditional” teletherapy. Medicina Clínica y Social, 1(3), 190–191.Google Scholar
Trombello, J. M., South, C., Sánchez, A., et al. (2020). Two trajectories of depressive symptom reduction throughout Behavioral Activation teletherapy among underserved, ethnically-diverse, primary care patients: A VitalSign6 report. Behavior Therapy, 51(6), 958–971. doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2020.01.002Google Scholar
Uhlmann, N. (2019, May 13). How activists can fight back against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Teen Vogue. www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-fight-back-against-iceGoogle Scholar
Ungar, M., Ghazinour, M., & Richter, J. (2013). Annual research review: What is resilience within the social ecology of human development? The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(4), 348–366. doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12025Google Scholar
US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020, May 13). The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate rises to record high 14.7 percent in April 2020. US Department of Labor. www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/unemployment-rate-rises-to-record-high-14-point-7-percent-in-april-2020.htmGoogle Scholar
Zeleny, J. (2007, December 9). Oprah Winfrey hits campaign trail for Obama. The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/us/politics/09oprah.html?searchResultPosition=1Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×