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Partnership and engagement are mediators of change in the efficient uptake of evidence-based patient-centered health interventions. We reflect on our process of engagement and preparation of peer mentors in the development of peer-led psychotherapy intervention for HIV infected adolescents in active care at the Comprehensive Care Centre (CCC) at Kenyatta National Hospital. The program was implemented in two phases, using a Consultation, Involve, Collaboration and Empowerment approach as stepping stones to guide our partnership and engagement process with stakeholders and ten peer mentors embedded in the CCC. Our partnership process promoted equity, power-and-resource sharing including making the peer mentors in-charge of the process and being led by them in manual development. This process of partnership and engagement demonstrated that engaging key stakeholders in projects lead to successful development, implementation, dissemination and sustainment of evidence-based interventions. Feedback and insights bridged the academic and clinical worlds of our research by helping us understand clinical, family, and real-life experiences of persons living with HIV that are often not visible in a research process. Our findings can be used to understand and design mentorship programs targeting lay health workers and peer mentors at community health care levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the praxis of creative social entrepreneuring as a vehicle for creative emancipation. The main research question asks how the knowledge and practice of entrepreneuring intersects with creative practice, process, and production in the development of a creative social enterprise. This study contributes to entrepreneurship and creative industries literature highlighting the actions of entrepreneurship in connection with concepts of emancipation and empowerment. Additionally, this paper contributes knowledge about the impact of entrepreneurial activities within the context of the creative economy. The study takes a deep-context autoethnographic approach towards the praxis of entrepreneuring by a creative social entrepreneur. Research using an autoethnographic approach of an individual creative social entrepreneur contributes to creative and cultural entrepreneurship research by illuminating the unique challenges and opportunities they face as they navigate entrepreneurship dynamics within the creative economy and uncover the factors that contribute to social innovation. This study aims to illuminate the practices of entrepreneuring that create sustainable opportunities for creative emancipation. This paper addresses calls for contextually embedded studies on entrepreneurship in the creative economy. Ultimately, this paper serves as a catalyst for transdisciplinary studies in the areas of entrepreneurship and the creative economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how social marketing scholarship engages with the concept of empowerment and reflects critically on its usage and conceptualisations. Based on a systematic literature review, the paper discusses the importance of empowerment theory for increasing the emancipatory potential of social marketing in pursuit of community betterment and social change. The paper offers a definition of empowerment for the social marketing discipline, constructs a conceptual framework of empowerment for social marketers, and clarifies the main aspects and principles of empowerment theory relevant for the development of critical social marketing, thereby providing sources for future research, continuing critical reflections and critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egg freezing can allow women to preserve their eggs to avoid age-related infertility. The UK's recent extension of elective egg freezing storage has been welcomed as a way of enhancing the reproductive choices of young women who wish to delay having children. In this paper, I explore the issue of enhancing women's reproductive choices, questioning whether there is a more significant aspect overlooked in egg freezing. While increasing storage limits expands reproductive choices for some women, focus on this extension alone, I argue, misses a fundamental issue with egg preservation that often remains ignored; the importance of effective information on egg freezing and the effect this has on women's reproductive choices. Ultimately, I highlight the crucial role of balanced information in enhancing women's choices regarding egg freezing and argue that focusing on extending and increasing provision may obscure this real opportunity to empower women and their authentic reproductive choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, the growth and development of the fields of Dance Science and Pedagogy, as practice, research and area of study, has changed the landscape of 21st Century training and performance. The aim of this paper is to stimulate thinking and initiate dialogue between practitioners and academics in the exploration of new solutions to ongoing pedagogical tensions within the vocational training environment. In recognising the challenge which an interdisciplinary approach brings to dance (integrating the science of content and the art of delivery), this paper explores the integration of coaching pedagogical concepts and practices, to inform an innovative approach to dancer empowerment, placing the dancer central to the learning environment. The paper proposes an empowered dancer focused framework for coaching with the emphasis being placed on the development of the dancer displaying the skills of self-determined, decision-making and are empowered across the life cycle of their career(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the use of social media, particularly Facebook, for public engagement purposes by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the United Arab Emirates. It draws on an interpretation of engagement as a multidimensional process with cognitive and affective characteristics where power relations between an organization and its public should be addressed. This paper combines content analysis with social semiotics to examine the multimodal production and enactment of engagement as a relational process at the level of the verbal, visual, and paratext modes. The study reveals that the use of Facebook by NPOs is marked by a strong control over discourse and low affective involvement, where fundraising becomes the primary function of the platforms. This demonstrates that the philanthropic identity and mission of most NPOs obscure the relationship management objective of these organizations and undermine their ability to effectively engage stakeholders on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French law 2004-228 and Quebec's Bill 21 has prohibited wearing conspicuous religious symbols while discharging public duty, especially as teachers in public school. This has aroused robust public debate because it disproportionately affects Muslim women wearing hijabs. This paper investigates the philosophical/ethical argument on both sides of the debate. The key research question is whether liberal feminists have the justification to support the hijab ban. The paper outlines different types of liberal feminism and their views on just social arrangements. The paper uses Gheaus's concept of gender justice and Kabeer's definition of gender empowerment to structure the debate, stating that feminists will support the ban if it enhances empowerment and makes society more gender-just or internal working of social arrangements, at least procedurally just. The paper draws on the utilitarian argument, Nussbaum's and Sen's articulation of the Capability Approach and the importance of identity, and Bourdieu's concept of Habitus, Doxa, and Symbolic Violence. The paper argues that there are strong arguments on both sides. Still, liberal feminists concerned about structural inequalities, economic empowerment, and individual freedom may not be convinced that the Hijab ban makes society more gender-just or improves individual empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western political philosophy has been dominated by the idea of speech as the locus of subjectivity constitution, individual and collective. This has led to a neglect of silence and silent forms of political being. Taken for the absence of speech acts, silence has come to stand for the want or failure of agency. This special issue reconsiders silence in relation to both speech acts and other forms of political action. Equipped with new understandings of silence, it re-assesses the role of silence and of silent agency in both democratic and authoritarian systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was designed to explore the Legal, Political, and Administrative barriers to Citizen Participation in Local governance. The paper explored both the subjective factors that include the role of stakeholders (local administrators, local political representatives, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens) and objective factors such as legal and administrative basis of Citizen Participation. The paper presented evidence from an inquiry of the local government institutions in Pakistan by employing qualitative research methods. The findings divulged manifold problems that contributed to the ineptitude of Citizen Participation in current development lexicon. First, mechanisms of direct Citizen Participation are faulty. The legal framework on Citizen Participation has a very high margin of manipulation. The main policy documents and laws can be easily interpreted and accommodated to different development discourses. In addition, local government administration, the provincial government, and political elites are not ready to disseminate their powers. Furthermore, local bureaucrats are more empowered than any other stakeholder, which is making Citizen Participation a distant reality. Overall, the findings suggested that it will be difficult to implement participatory governance effectively in Pakistan due to the low degree of Civil Society Organizations' effectiveness, the truncated level of education regarding Citizen Participation, loopholes in the legal framework, and no mechanism for accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a dimensions of power framework that integrates the theoretical work of Gaventa, Giddens, and Young, this paper unpacks the meanings of self-efficacy, solidarity, and agency in relation to different forms of power. These definitions: (1) reaffirm radical understandings of empowerment as an internal process for both individuals and groups, as well as a function of enabling institutional and societal structures, and (2) enable critical examination of the role of community development professionals in the pursuit of empowerment at these various levels of analysis. We begin with a critique of imposed, deficit-oriented approaches to community development and examine how mainstream practices have shifted intentions toward asset-oriented, participatory work within communities served, but even in the best circumstances fail to address underlying systemic barriers to empowerment and community well-being. Based on this analysis, we consider how these findings call for transformation of the role of professional community developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe aim of the paper was to assess the nexus between COVID 19, trade and gender. Since readymade garments (RMG) and remittances (i.e. services exports) dominant exports in Bangladesh, the paper analyses the impact of the COVID-19 via the RMG and remittance shocks on women workers and entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. The economic and social impacts on trade and COVID 19 are large in Bangladesh. Supportive measures were needed to address these deleterious impacts. The paper recommends tapping into the potential for job creation in ready-made garment and service sectors with supporting policies to alleviate women’s unpaid care work, to reduce gender-based violence in the public space and at work and to upgrade women’s skills – in particular, digital skills to accompany the economic transformation to a shift towards the ICT and service sector. It was also suggested that the government should ensure that support packages reach women entrepreneurs by partnering up with micro-finance institutions and offer reduced collaterals, prolonged repayment timeline and flexibility as to the size of the interest free loan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis of the life histories of buraku women in the latter half of the 20th century, this paper explores the empowering potential of literacy classes and other educational activities. The paper focuses on the case study of Yamamoto Eiko, a woman born in the pre-war period in a poor buraku family in Kyoto who dedicated her adult life to the literacy movement and education. To have a deeper understanding of how multiple, interconnected factors such as buraku discrimination, poverty and gender have impacted buraku women’s life experiences, the paper adopts an intersectional perspective to look at education as a specific field of discrimination. I argue that literacy can become a tool for empowerment both on a personal level, making women more independent and raising their self-esteem, and on a societal level because it allowed them to participate more actively in the liberation movement and advocate for women’s needs. Still, buraku women’s experiences reveal the deep-rooted patriarchal social structure inside buraku communities and the gender discrimination they encountered inside the liberation movement itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public spaces are central to social interactions and cohesion, overall urban life, and therewith sustainable urban development. They can play key roles in increasing social interactions and women's empowerment. The literature lacks empirical research on the state of women's use of public spaces and these spaces' effects on women's social interactions and empowerment in Middle Eastern cities in the Kurdistan Region, where women historically enjoyed greater freedom. This paper addresses this gap by presenting insights from a comparative cross-border study with women in two Kurdish cities, Sanandaj and Sulaimani. In doing so, the paper contributes an empirically based theorization of urban public place-making, and debates its effects on the empowerment of women in the context of Kurdish urbanisms. The study developed a survey instrument to measure women's interactions with and in public spaces and their related empowerment in these two cities across five main factors. Despite the local women's limited interaction with and in the public spaces of these two Kurdish cities, the findings show a strong positive relationship between women's interactions in public spaces and their empowerment. The results also suggest that socio-political and related socio-spatial changes have contributed to a decreased relevance of traditional meeting and leisure spaces but have increased the use of malls as commodified spaces, particularly in Sulaimani. The study debates the specificities of urban public spaces in Kurdish cities, and commonalities as well as differences compared with developments elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that increasing threats to our survival call for a deeper sociological engagement with environmental issues. The argument is presented in different sections: firstly, the need for a reorientation of the discipline around the complex interrelation and interdependence of society and nature. This reorientation could build on the sociologial work on environmental risks by Ulrich Beck and that on "slow violence" by Rob Nixon, both of which acknowledge the power of class relations. The injustices this involves suggest the need to re-examine sociological research practice from "extracting" information from "informants" to empowering relations of mutual exchange and reciprocity. The challenges this involves are illustrated by an account of "exchange workshops" in mining-affected communities. The paper ends with a call for more sociological involvement in social movements, particularly for a just transition from fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a Saudi woman living in times of rapid socioeconomic transformation, working in a low-paid job may feel both obligatory and shameful. This paper argues that Saudi women – torn between traditionalism and modernity – are deeply impacted, though in ambivalent ways, by the recent empowerment discourse. It examines how the corporate world adopts the empowerment narrative to promote progress, modernity, and openness at the expense of women’s needs, preferences, and values. Through interviews with a diverse cohort of 20 employed women aged 20–45 years, this study seeks to unravel the motivations that drive women to pursue work in a patriarchal society where the conventional role of men entails assuming financial responsibility for women. Through an exploration of the motivations underlying women’s decisions to work – a few of which are the desire for recognition, financial independence, and self-worth – this paper investigates issues of visibility, space, and social responsibility. These key issues emphasize the struggles encountered by working women in attaining empowerment, autonomy, and self-worth despite their participation in the labour market and their financial independence. By examining low-skilled sectors in which women struggle with challenging working conditions, this paper aims to give voice to disadvantaged women who, in the empowerment plans, are left unheard and their future obscured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late 20th century saw a phenomenal integration of the production and consumption of clothing between the Global North and the Global South. While global integration of mass manufactured garments has been discussed at length, this paper investigates the gender subjectivities within artisanal production of globally-oriented ethnic wear within the garment value chain. This ethnographic case study focuses on the women entrepreneurs animating the large-scale Nepali garment subcluster. This subcluster, with its origins in fringe tourism and development expatriatism became so integrated with its global counterparts that some entrepreneurs became prominent national names. The market conflated female and male designers and entrepreneurs. In this process of symbiotic absorption, and the dominance of garment production in the national economy, female entrepreneurs saw their careers sidelined and their contributions overlooked. This paper draws on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork encompassing the period from 1990s to the first quarter of the twenty-first century to explore the evolving dynamics of the Nepali public sphere in response to profound changes within the Nepali state. These transformations encompass the shift from a Hindu monarchy to a Maoist revolution, resulting in a secular, republican and federal state. The paper further examines the implications of these shifts for the female entrepreneurs in Nepal who have played a substantial role in Nepal's industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African National Housing Program has sought to address housing insecurity by subsidising millions of low-cost housing units. The policy uses a gender-sensitive approach, by mandating joint titling and prioritising women-headed households as subsidy recipients. This paper examines the extent to which the policy has succeeded at empowering women through housing ownership. The paper finds limited evidence on the policy's impact as a mechanism for women's empowerment. No significant change is detected in women's labour supply or well-being. Women who are co-owners appear to participate less in primary decision-making, but more so in joint decision-making. For women who are sole-owners however, the subsidy seems to increase primary decision-making and decrease joint decision-making. Moreover, the subsidy appears to decrease consensus within in the household about the identity of the decision-makers. Despite ambiguous results, the distribution of housing to women should not be abandoned and remains a pressing policy objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Money & Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a significant amount of literature in which the educational question concerning intercultural communication is seen in terms of providing students with the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and competencies that will enable them to become effective intercultural communicators. While this line of thought seems to have become the 'common sense' of much educational policy, there is also a growing body of research in which critical questions are raised about this approach. There are particular concerns about the totalising tendencies in such approaches, and ethics is often mobilised as a way to understand and enact the intercultural encounter differently. In this paper, I contribute to these discussions from an educational perspective. I contrast a pedagogy of empowerment with a pedagogy of disarmament, show how the idea of culture functions as an explanatory device, raise the question of time in intercultural encounters, and argue that an ethical 'turn' may run the risk of becoming another totalising gesture in intercultural communication. Through these explorations, I outline the contours of a pedagogy for intercultural communication beyond culture and without ethics in which the central challenge is that of trying to become 'contemporaneous'. I pay particular attention to what this may require from the teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pavement dwellers remain largely outside any shelter and social service schemes in developing countries. Most programs for urban poor are settlement specific and primarily targeted to slum communities. A number of initiatives did not succeed in the past mainly because those were limited to providing temporary shelters only. Since homeless is a multidimensional problem, an effective intervention needs to provide multifaceted support to homeless people. This paper presents the case of Amrao Manush project which has developed a model framework to uplift the living condition of homeless people through the Pavement Dweller Centers (PDC). The PDC offers shelter and multidimensional support to pavement dwellers including day-care facility, child education, basic healthcare service, and skill development training. The project demonstrates how a continuous and stepwise process of upgradation – ranging from providing basic shelter and services to skill development training – can empower homeless people to overcome extreme poverty, find employment opportunities and eventually move out of streets. The paper also discusses the major strengths and weaknesses and suggests potential strategies for further scaling-up the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, arts-based research methods have gained a substantial standing in qualitative social work research and practise. The methods, which include techniques such as collage work and photography, have been utilised to contextualise individual experiences and combat stereotyping. This article aims to provide detailed information on the self-reflective process that working with images evoked in research participants and in the researcher. This paper reflects upon the type of reflexive knowledge produced in a study that utilised the picture collage method in mapping out migrant individuals´ life theories and worldviews. The paper highlights the possibilities of self-reflecting image work becoming a valuable resource in research with the aim to empower individuals vulnerable to stereotyping and to increase researchers' awareness of stereotypes that, in the case of migrant clients, may be based on ethnicity or country entry status. The paper suggests that storytelling with images allows a greater space for interpretations of individuals´ experiences to grow and develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on how immigrant activists interact with the host state in socio-political spheres where they exercise their citizenship. Located in Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP), this paper adopts the concept of 'act of citizenship' to analyse Vietnamese activists' interactions with the NSP. This paper finds that the NSP appropriated immigrant women's motherhood and family relationships in order to boost tourism and facilitate Southeast Asian language acquisition in the short term and to enhance Taiwan's relationship with Southeast Asia in the long run. In response, immigrant activists utilised the NSP to build their own capacity and to realise their acts of empowerment, compassion and contestation in the family and public domains. They not only improved individuals' wellbeing but also made the Taiwanese state accountable for gender bias and inequality. These findings offer a much needed gender perspective into immigrant activists' dialectical relationship with the migration state of Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"What explains the feeling of being disempowered? The literature on aspirations suggests subjectively deprived people may feel disempowered because they consider that any improvement to their lot is simply out of their reach. The present paper provides original and robust evidence that, alongside the well-known objective capabilities related to skills, assets and opportunities, psychological capabilities linked to aspirations also matter. Based on a Central African household survey and tackling endogeneity issues, we show that: (i) feeling subjectively more deprived decreases the probability of reporting a high level of empowerment, defined as power from within, that is the power to change one's life; (ii) the probability of reporting empowerment decreases with the size of the aspirations gap, defined as the negative gap between one's level of subjective wealth and the locality's mean level; (iii) the capability framework is a relevant one to address the complex links between aspirations and empowerment." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Using findings from a study on 'Understanding the dynamics of youth development and socio-economic empowerment: A study on social policy and strategic responses for improving youth employment in Botswana', the author examines the nexus between youth empowerment programmes and youth employability in Botswana. The specific objectives were to explore how youth empowerment programmes can be modified to stave off youth unemployment, and to enhance the capacity of the government and private sector to design and implement programmes for promoting employment. The findings shed light that the policy implementers do not have adequate capacity to help the youth realise socio-economic empowerment. Several challenges have continued to affect the attempts to implement sustainable youth empowerment programmes. This paper recommends that there is need to involve the youth in policy formulation and implementation in order to achieve employability through youth programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking beyond the legal approach of child rights governance (CRG) in the European Union (EU), this study contextualises a society-centric understanding of CRG concerning the sociological theory of childhood and new modes of governance as applied in the children's rights sphere. By referring to the shortcomings and gaps in the legal perspective on CRG (e.g. tokenistic political participation by children, the dominant discourse on the protection of children versus empowerment, the legal fact that the EU cannot ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the implementation gap), the paper shows the subjective aspects of CRG while problematising children's participation rights. Building on intersecting themes such as children's lived citizenship and youthful political agency, the paper asks what theoretical references are needed for society-centric solutions to the shortcomings of the legal perspective addressed earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a tourism industry historically dominated by outside influences, the island of Bali has striven for greater local resident involvement. Community-based tourism (CBT) has thereby become an increasingly preferred tourism development approach rooted in promises of more inclusive opportunities for community empowerment, a notion reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing upon SDG17 – Partnerships for the Goals – and specifically focusing on SDG17.9 – Capacity building, SDG17.14 – Enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development, and SDG17.16 and SDG17.17 – Multi-stakeholder partnerships, this paper investigates the "social empowerment" that results from interactions between CBT actors, and the factors that support or hinder residents' empowerment through CBT in rural Bali. This paper presents empirical evidence from an ethnographic study in three villages at different stages of tourism development. Through a generative conceptualisation of power, embedded in the rather hierarchical Balinese socio-cultural context, this paper contributes new understandings of empowerment in CBT, particularly the extent to which partnerships and collaborations create spaces for residents' empowerment and greater inclusion for sustainable CBT development, in line with Agenda 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying qualitative methods and evidence from the field, this paper explores the situation of women with disabilities within Bangladesh’s overall sociocultural, political, and economic contexts. The research found that participating women with disabilities were living in poverty and were disenfranchised. They reported being treated with disregard, and at times with contempt, both within their families and the wider society. In Bangladesh, disability is often regarded as a divine curse. In a patriarchal society where women are often seen as a liability, women with disabilities are particularly resented, and are often abandoned by their family members or are victims of domestic violence and abuse. In a society where sensitivity to the needs of people with disability is yet to take root, provisions for accessing basic services, such as education, are limited or non-existent for women with disabilities. Direct and representational participation of women with disabilities in the policy process is rare and changes relevant to their needs and empowerment are few. This research indicates that the situation of women with disabilities in Bangladesh is different from that of men with disabilities. More focused and gender-sensitive interventions are required at multiple levels – social, cultural and institutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective communication plays a part in the success and the sustainability of the tourism and hospitality management, including community-based tourism (CBT). In Brunei Darussalam, communication barriers have affected the growth of the CBT industry on both local and national levels. By analyzing responses from 16 local CBT operators, this investigation focuses aspects of communication and its channels in securing sustainability and empowerment of CBT industry. This study found that the CBT ventures in Brunei include (1) horizontal/lateral communication between CBT operators and surrounding communities and (2) top-down communication and bottom-up accessibility between the authority, the community leaders, and the CBT owners. This paper further discusses how bureaucracy can impede the success of CBT operations, and how a collaborative approach between stakeholders has inspired the formulation of a new Interactional Model of Leadership and Empowerment among CBT stakeholders, which can be used to measure the efficacy of communication among stakeholders in the CBT industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how integrating digital technologies such as cell phones and digital cameras with face-to-face participatory methodologies can help enhance community engagement and cultural preservation in ICT for Development (ICTD) initiatives in remote regions with limited connectivity and digital literacy. This view from practice presents participatory methods in the ‘Leadership, Communication, and Climate Change’ program in the context of environmental conservation and indigenous community development in the Vaupés region of the Colombian Amazon. The primary goal of the program is to contribute to the formulation of indigenous community development projects that enhance environmental protection and improve the quality of life for participating communities, while respecting and promoting the cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The ‘Leadership, Communication, and Climate Change’ program aims to foster an exchange of knowledge between academics, environmental practitioners, and indigenous leaders from the region of Vaupes, in the eastern boundaries of the Colombian Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2011 onward, jewelry advertisements in India have witnessed a surge in multimedia campaigns of branded work wear gold and diamond jewelry. These commercials target the urban Indian working woman with an affinity for fine, workwear jewelry marketed as versatile, cool and chic. This study takes up discourse analysis of 23 select commercials released on television channels and over the top (OTT) platforms between 2017 and 2022 to unravel the many contesting and contradictory displays of women’s apparently empowered personas. In doing so, it also seeks to unravel the rather complicated connections between the jewelry business and the gendered cultural habitus of working women in contemporary urban India. Most women depicted in the advertisements possess high economic and cultural capital and are seen as ‘doing urbanity’ in choosing workwear jewelry. Ironically though these possessors of refined habitus are perfectly adjusted in performing traditional gendered roles and relegating their own self-hoods, a much saleable business trope for advertisers. Such portrayals of urban Indian working women subtly and paradoxically dovetail in valorizing ideals of traditional femininity. This paper further argues that jewelry advertisements become sites where the projection of the ‘urban Indian working woman’ becomes a conduit for legitimizing a more mutated and reflexive patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-design is intrinsically linked to the notion of empowerment, however little research has focussed specifically on understanding the types, obstacles and sources of empowerment in co-design. This paper combines theoretical investigations with observations derived from co-designed research by academic and non-academic partners to explore these issues, in particular, the role of shared material objects and processes in supporting empowerment during co-design. The paper uses the notions of 'power over,' 'power to', 'power with' and 'power within' to tease out different aspects of empowerment, and draws on empirical observations to determine different obstacles and sources associated with each. The study therefore makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of co-design as an empowerment process and should be useful for design researchers undertaking co-design projects with non-experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research demonstrates the benefits of educating for social justice in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs. This body of research shows that social justice pedagogy enables student teachers to create a sense of social agency and community purpose in their teaching that positions them with more certainty when facing the political and professional hurdles embedded in a teaching career. The social justice perspective allows PETE educators and student teachers to work together in order to become conscious of the power structures in society that lead to social inequities. Although there are comprehensive studies on social justice and critical pedagogy in PETE, there is much to learn about how PETE educators conceptualize and practice critical pedagogy. Particularly in Brazil, there is limited research that confronts and analyses data from the myriad of emancipatory pedagogical PETE practices around the country, in order to turn those practices into a coherent body of critical narratives and shared knowledge. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explore the challenges, struggles and pleasures that two PETE educators faced in understanding and enacting critical pedagogy in Brazil. A theoretical framework based on Freire's critical pedagogy is employed to discuss the complementary narratives presented in this paper. We proclaim our hope that critical pedagogy might point to some avenues for political democratic struggles in a moment when public Education in Brazil is under severe attack promoted by the right-wing forces that currently sit on the presidential and the ministry of Education chairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and Communication Technologies increase healthcare education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, they have been gaining importance. Our aim was to assess the effects of a web-based questionnaire used in a pelvic floor consultation. We performed a prospective intervention study analysing the use of a web-based questionnaire prior to a first appointment. Fifty-two women used the questionnaire and 52 did not. All patients filled in a paper-based survey relating to satisfaction and pelvic floor knowledge after the appointment. Women in the intervention group showed better knowledge. They had 11% more correct answers for organ prolapse definition [CI 95% (−0.30 to 0.07)], 25% more correct answers for incontinence definition [CI 95% (−0.41 to −0.08)] and 23% better incontinence classification [CI 95% (−0.34 to 0.09]. More patients in the web-questionnaire group started primary therapy in the first consultation (38% versus 16%). Measurements of the total mean time in the consultation room revealed no statistically significant differences [19.36 (SD 4.96) and 21.19 (SD 4.62) minutes, respectively; p =.05] and satisfaction levels were similar. After using our web-based questionnaire, the time for medical histories reduced and patient knowledge increased without changing satisfaction levels. Web-based questionnaires (WBQ) and information web links may help to reduce time of history taking while time for physical examination, counselling and treatment discussion increases. Also, patient knowledge improves. What is already known on this subject? There are reviews showing how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can improve health quality and sanitary education. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, ICT use has been accelerated and traineeship and learning has been enforced. However, there is not extensive research on its use in gynaecological consultations. What do the results of this study add? We have proved that the use of a WBQ and information web links before face-to-face first visit in a pelvic floor service improves patient knowledge. We have also worked to provide scientific evidence to an ICT tool. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The most important implications for clinical practice are the improvement of patient–provider communication, the time reduction for history taking in contrast to time increase for physical examination, counselling and treatment discussion. Apart from that, WBQ may help to measure qualitative information, because it is registered and can be used as patient reported outcomes (PRO) to increase quality of care. Further research should focus on other benefits of WBQ such as achieving better patient satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sex workers in South Africa face various forms of structural and interpersonal violence, including police violence, exclusion from health services, and stigmatization and marginalization within their communities. In an attempt to counteract the harmful health effects of criminalization and exclusion, risk-reduction workshops are a key component of HIV prevention programs globally. This paper offers a critical investigation of Creative Space workshops – a South African model of risk-reduction workshops for sex workers – taking place in Soweto, Johannesburg. Drawing on Paulo Freire's work, the paper explores the potential of these workshops to contribute to the empowerment, health and well-being of sex workers. Objectives: The aim of this paper is to investigate the social and psychological effects of peer-led risk-reduction workshops for sex workers in Soweto, South Africa, with a particular focus on the ways in which they might contribute to community empowerment. Methods: This paper is based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 32 sex workers conducted as part of a 20-month ethnographic study (December 2015 to July 2017). Data was analyzed combining inductive thematic analysis with a theoretical frame based on Freire's theory of community empowerment. Results: Peer-led risk-reduction workshops can serve as a 'safe space' for sex workers and distribute empowering forms of knowledge, particularly regarding health issues and rights. However, divisions between different groups of sex workers and between sex workers and non-sex workers counteract the potential benefits of the workshops. Conclusions: Peer-led sex worker programs are likely to be more empowering when they are committed to raising critical consciousness and creating solidarity, and embedded in community action, focusing on common issues such as institutionalized racism, livelihood insecurity, and lack of access to safe and secure housing. Such actions would have positive outcomes on health and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper wishes to help heal the lack of trans people's representation in art therapy research that coincides with the lack of art therapy literature theorising body tracing. Supervisor, art psychotherapist and service user have come together to offer a research process that questions power dynamics and uses lived experience to explore an approach of body tracing that differs from body mapping and so contributes a further approach in this field for working with people whose identities question the status quo of power. Specifically, we wish to demonstrate the relevance of body tracing as a tool for facilitating the gender transitioning process. We explore how it offers a lived experience in the here and now that promotes agency and an internal locus of control over what is to be modified and what is to be maintained. It creates an embodied space for a new identity to be shaped. We examine how the contextualisation of creative process modalities (sensory experience, formal decision-making and symbolic meaning) within the resulting body-space aids the integration of states of self and bodily awareness and connectedness. We hope to inspire further research in this field that can support an institutionalised adoption of body tracing within an art therapy setting for gender transitioning service users. Art therapists have only written a little about working with trans people. The same is true of the technique of body tracing. This paper speaks about both of these areas. The service user has taken the role of lived experience author in order to work together with the art therapist and her supervisor, so that all three voices can talk on equal terms about their experiences in these areas and explore a way of using body tracing that they believe can empower people who are gender transitioning. A technique called body mapping already uses body tracing to help people who feel disadvantaged because of their identity (for example, their sexual orientation, the colour of their skin, religion, nationality etc.). Our research offers an additional approach with some distinct features. The lived experience author describes how the act of drawing around the body and then being able to modify this outline promoted a sense of control over his body, leading to a feeling of greater control over his life. This helped him reclaim ownership of his body at a time when other people were deciding the hormones he took and the options available. Our method integrates bottom-up and top-down processes to help a person feel more connected with their body. Working on the body tracing involves many physical sensations that vary for each of the four stages of the process. Memories and thoughts may also come to mind connected with lived experiences and fantasies. The physical feelings in the body can be filtered thanks to the images and colours in the representation of the body on the paper. We hope that other people will join our research so that institutions supporting trans people can offer this service to their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract \nPoints of Interest The retail payments market is developing, and the implementation of digital payments has been one of the trends in consumer finance worldwide. This is the first study to jointly examine the perception of digital payment methods and financial services’ role, for consumers with and without disabilities. First, based on a nationwide survey on Internet users in Poland, the authors compared the popularity of selected financial services among consumers, then the perception of characteristics of payment methods. The results revealed that consumers with disabilities use a wide range of payment services, and they are included in digital finance. Moreover, contactless payment cards are used by consumers with disabilities even more often than by consumers on average. The results suggest that the control over finances make digital payments an important empowering tool for consumers with disabilities. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for the banking sector, on strategies for offering digital financial services. This paper examines the potential of new cashless payment methods as an empowering and assistive technologies for consumers with disabilities. The research found that consumers with disabilities use a wide range of payment services, and contactless payment cards are used by them even more often than by non-disabled people. People with disabilities also perceive payment cards as giving great control over their personal finance. This suggest that new payment methods might be their assistive and empowering tool of everyday life. Consequently, the research recommends that entities designing new payment methods should meet the needs of people with disabilities, because they could be improving their shopping and banking experience with appropriate adjustments. This paper examines the potential of new cashless payment methods as an empowering and assistive technologies for consumers with disabilities.The research found that consumers with disabilities use a wide range of payment services, and contactless payment cards are used by them even more often than by non-disabled people.People with disabilities also perceive payment cards as giving great control over their personal finance. This suggest that new payment methods might be their assistive and empowering tool of everyday life.Consequently, the research recommends that entities designing new payment methods should meet the needs of people with disabilities, because they could be improving their shopping and banking experience with appropriate adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In recent decades, improvements in cognitive studies have given rise to opportunities for technology to become involved in decision-making processes. Autonomous machines are mainly performing support actions that avoid distracting people from their primary tasks in the workplace. Nevertheless, there are already examples of machines that make decisions of greater responsibility. The text's thesis is that technology has been empowered in organizations as a result of developments in artificial intelligence. This paper shows that both humans and technology can have autonomy in decision-making, defines techno-empowerment, and presents various examples of autonomous machines that are currently used in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the 'equalising effect of schools' in general and two concrete interventions that have been carried out recently in Sweden in particular. The first of these interventions is the closing down of schools in deprived neighbourhoods and moving pupils to other schools. The second is 'empowerment' – i.e., creating an inclusive and supportive pedagogical school environment for students with working-class and immigrant backgrounds. As findings from previous Swedish studies regarding the first intervention show, an equalising effect will not be achieved without considering the 'school climate' of mixed schools. The findings from this case study of a school located in a deprived suburb of Stockholm County indicate that even schools in these areas are able to equalise educational opportunities through building an alliance between students, parents and community activists on the one hand and bi-class and bi-cultural brokers like teachers and social workers on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an examination of 'frexting' ('friend' + 'sexting'), which is defined as the exchange of personally-produced intimate images among friends. It draws upon accounts of frexting shared by teenage girls during a 2016 study investigating sexting conducted in Surrey, England. Frexting is theorised as a form of homosociality among girls and explores the extent to which and how it reflects, reproduces and subverts the dominant gendered social order within youth digital intimacies. The analysis suggests that while frexting involves intimate self-representation away from the male gaze, it reflects and reinforces a post-feminist cultural landscape characterised by (self-)scrutiny and regulation of girls' bodies and bodily self-representations. Frexting worked to demonstrate an authentic, relaxed, carefree and confident but, importantly, non-sexual sensibility, with implications for who and what constitutes legible participation. While subverting normative interpretations of girls' bodies as inherently, and problematically, sexual, frexting did not fundamentally trouble the post-feminist cultural landscape within which the girls were operating. The paper concludes by arguing that for frexting to become a truly emancipatory endeavour, it is necessary to dismantle the socio-cultural context that restricts and regulates girls' abilities to relate to and represent their bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Improving women's agency, namely their ability to define goals and act on them, is crucial for advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women. Yet, existing frameworks for measuring women's agency – both disorganized and partial – provide a fragmented understanding of the constraints women face in exercising their agency, thus restricting the design of reliable and valid interventions and evaluation of their impact. This paper proposes a multidisciplinary framework for capturing individual agency, containing three critical dimensions: goal setting, perceived control and ability to initiate action toward goals ("sense of agency"), and acting on goals. For each dimension, the paper reviews existing measurement approaches and what is known about their relative quality. The study concludes by highlighting that future research to improve the measurement of women's agency should prioritize incorporating different contexts, age groups, and decision-making areas to ensure programming and policies are meaningful to the lives of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three scholars on the grounds that their pioneering use of randomized control trials (RCTs) was innovative methodologically and contributed to development policy and the emergence of a new development economics. Using a critical feminist lens, this article challenges that conclusion by interrogating the storytelling practices deployed by "randomista" economists through a critical reading of a widely cited essay by Esther Duflo, one of the 2019 Nobel recipients, on the relationship between women's empowerment and economic development. The paper argues that the limitations of randomista economics have given rise to a particular way of thinking characterized by piecemeal analysis, ad hoc resort to theory, indifference to history and context, and methodological fundamentalism. It concludes that the randomista argument that broad-based economic development alone – without focused attention to women's rights – will lead to gender equality has not been borne out by recent data. HIGHLIGHTS Despite claims of impartiality, Duflo's interpretations of evidence and the language she uses indicate that the randomista method and narrative is not objective or impartial. The randomistas' treatment of preferences as random and idiosyncratic ignores what feminists have long espoused: that the formation of preferences derives from entrenched social constructions. The randomistas' claims to methodological superiority result in a discounting or dismissal of findings from nonexperimental studies in favor of experimental studies that report the same findings. Duflo's main argument discussed in this paper is that while gender equality is desirable in its own right, it is better achieved through gender-neutral policies because gender-affirmative policies "distort" the allocative process and lead to efficiency costs. Yet, these so-called distortions stem from historical structures that have curtailed women's productive potential and protected male privilege. In other words, patriarchal discrimination introduces structural costs that are unlikely to be visible when the focus is on individual economic actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory design has as both its purpose and means, the democratic engagement and empowerment of end-users in design processes. The situation of participatory design, as a unit of analysis, is however, laden with complex power dynamics and interactions amongst participating actants; this contributes to advancing as well as inhibiting both the employment of the means and the achievement of the goals of democratic engagement and empowerment. This paper presents the case of participatory design with a community-based organisation, in the design of technology artefacts for one of their service centres. Using Situational Analysis, a critical qualitative inquiry methodology, the paper unpacks the complex interactions and surfaces the hidden power mechanisms and hegemonic dynamics in the participatory design situation. Further, on the premise that reflection and reflexivity can facilitate critical review, empowerment of users, and self-development in design teams, the paper presents an analysis of the extent to which reflexivity was achieved in the participatory design sessions, and discusses the mechanisms that were employed in this situation to mitigate the identified barriers against democratic engagement and empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers who feel having a legitimate mandate to carry the social justice core value of their profession must first grasp the depth and breadth of poverty. These workers must then comprehend the sociopolitical underpinnings of welfare policies intended to benefit their clients. This paper explored the scope of poverty in the United States; assessed antipoverty policies in relation to their failure to produce long-term self-sufficiency outcomes for recipients; and discussed two appropriate social work interventions – empowerment practice and social advocacy – for working with marginalized populations, including welfare recipients. It is concluded that, because the American welfare state is fundamentally flawed, people living in poverty may experience difficulties reaching their full potential if stranded for too long on the rolls of means-tested benefits. This paper proposed a self-sufficiency framework for poverty and social welfare stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender & Development is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This Perspectives paper advances understanding of coaching in pediatric rehabilitation. We compare three coaching approaches designed for pediatric rehabilitation: Coping with and Caring for Infants with Special Needs (COPCA), Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC), and Solution-Focused Coaching in Pediatric Rehabilitation (SFC-peds). Our objectives are to contrast the theory underpinning the approaches, discuss the evidence for outcomes and hypothesized mechanisms of change, consider the necessary mindsets of effective coaches, and propose directions for research and practice. The coaching approaches have different theoretical bases and are designed for specific contexts, yet are similar in their mechanisms of change and intended outcomes. There is growing evidence of important effects of coaching on coachees' goal achievement, empowerment, and capacity building. Studies indicate that stakeholders value coaching, and provide a preliminary understanding of the mechanisms, including engagement and self-efficacy, by which coaching approaches support clients' self-directed and sustained change. Open, curious, and client-centered practitioner mindsets are fundamental to effective coaching. Coaching is a distinctive group of relational, goal-oriented, and evidence-based approaches that support goal achievement and empowerment. These approaches reflect and advance an ongoing paradigm shift in pediatric rehabilitation—a movement from therapist-as-expert approaches to those that build empowerment and capacity. Coaching is a distinctive group of theory-based approaches that support clients' goal achievement and empowerment, and build capacity Coaching practitioners are collaborative facilitators who assist clients and families with their own discovery of solutions that fit their everyday contexts The evidence suggests that coaching triggers engagement and self-efficacy, which are the mechanisms by which changes in longer-term outcomes occur Open, curious, and client/family-centered practitioner mindsets are fundamental to effective coaching [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of rural girls and young women in Ethiopia are migrating to urban towns and cities and taking up employment as domestic workers, some of whom continue their education by attending evening classes. For urban households, rural migrants help to fill the domestic work gaps created by the entry of urban women into employment. For rural young women, migrating as a domestic worker is an important strategy for achieving social mobility and empowerment. However, domestic workers are vulnerable and largely hidden in the city and we know little about their lived experiences. In this paper, we start to address this gap, drawing on interviews with eight rural female migrants who are working as domestic workers in the city and attending evening classes in urban secondary schools. Informed by a critical framing of empowerment, we explore the extent to which intersecting inequalities in rural areas disempower these young women, and how migration and education become important strategies for improving their lives. We show how the support of social network members is crucial in enabling participants' migration, yet how this also leads to power asymmetries and exploitation. We reflect on how the ability of rural young women to achieve better futures is limited due to their status as poor, rural, female migrants, yet how many wait in the city in the hope of a better future. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of critical approaches to female empowerment that includes a focus on structural inequalities and power imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]