A critical analysis of recent work on empowerment: implications for gender
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[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
/ Christine M. Koggel
GENERAL NOTES
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9626-1744
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
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A flurry of publications on empowerment by institutions such as the World Bank that emerged from about 20002005 was followed by critiques and then a seeming lull in the popularity of and work on empowerment. However, the concept has reappeared recently in what I take to be an important new development that highlights the relational feature of empowerment. In this paper, I begin with the capabilities approach as delineated by Amartya Sen and, specifically, his application of it to gender. This shapes the background against which I highlight how recent work on empowerment by Jay Drydyk, the World Development Report 2012, Gender Equality and Development, and Patti Petesch utilizes but also departs from Sen. I then argue that insights from this recent research can be developed further through a feminist relational framework. With its focus on relationships, relational theory can better capture possibilities for empowering women in and through an analysis of the relationships they are in.