PhD Completion Seminar

Richard Barcham

Intervention for Social Change Theorising empowerment practice from the Pacific and Indigenous Australia

Four Case Studies: • Solomon Islands Development Trust (Solomon Islands) • Bismark Ramu Group (Papua New Guinea) • Social Empowerment Education Program (Fiji) • JCU Empowerment Research Program / Family WellBeing

(Australia) A Three-tiered Approach: • Personal • Organisational • Social

Conceptual model for Psychological Empowerment (Christens 2011)

Themes and sub-themes in Aboriginal Empowerment (Tsey 2009)

“Development […] is seen as human development, as development of people in society.”

Johan Galtung, Goals, Processes and Indicators in Development, (1979:1)

Johan Galtung 1930 -

Question Man

Universal Human Need Universal Need Classes (internal, subject)

Physiological

Security

Identity

Autonomy

Need Lists Actor Dependent

Structure Dependent

Life, health

Localized and specific (hunger, cold, illness)

Stimulation, senses, imagination, play (learning)

Love

Consistency of response (reward and discipline)

Rationality

Law enforcement, freedom from

Distributive justice (law enforcement, state welfare, freedom from)

Personal worth

Affiliation

Group identification

Esteem

Recognition

Connection (other species, sense of place, land)

Personal growth and consciousness

Control (political and material)

Reflection based on symbolic representation (spirituality)

Exercise of self-judgment in choice

Struggle (rights, freedom to)

Source of Primary Satisfiers (external, object)

Existential “material ensemble”

Physical, objectified world

Kinships, friendships and intimate relationships, other bilateral social encounters

Social organization Values

Consequences of deficiency

Mortality and morbidity Uncontrolled conflict, violence

Alienation, anomie Fatalism, apathy submission/repression

Loss of meaning

Indicators Physical and psychological health

Personal responsibility Solidarity of members Tripartite rationality of knowledge

Material Non-material

Theory of Communicative Action Jurgen Habermas (1984, 1987)

“One can intuitively distinguish between the objectivity of external nature, the normative character of society, the intersubjectivity of language, and the subjectivity of internal nature.”

Jurgen Habermas, Theory and Society, 3 (1976:155)

Conceptual model for Psychological Empowerment (Christens 2011)

Subjectivity Objectivity Inter-subjective Normative

Communicative Action (Habermas 1984, 1987)

• Dramaturgical action (mutual help) Purposeful disclosure of subjectivity - sincerity • Normative action (identity group) Member of social group oriented to common values - rightness • Teleological action (strategic means) Solitary actor + 1 – a decision among alternative courses -

objective truth

•Mutual understanding

•Coordinating Action

•Socialisation

•Transmit and renew cultural knowledge

•Social integration

•Construction of identity

Forms of social action – limit cases of communicative action

Universal Human Need Universal Need Classes (internal, subject)

Physiological

Security

Identity

Autonomy

Need Lists Actor Dependent

Structure Dependent

Life, health

Localized and specific (hunger, cold, illness)

Stimulation, senses, imagination, play (learning)

Love

Consistency of response (reward and discipline)

Rationality

Law enforcement, freedom from

Distributive justice (law enforcement, state welfare, freedom from)

Personal worth

Affiliation

Group identification

Esteem

Recognition

Connection (other species, sense of place, land)

Personal growth and consciousness

Control (political and material)

Reflection based on symbolic representation (spirituality)

Exercise of self-judgment in choice

Struggle (rights, freedom to)

Source of Primary Satisfiers (external, object)

Existential “material ensemble”

Physical, objectified world

Kinships, friendships and intimate relationships, other bilateral social encounters

Social organization Values

Consequences of deficiency

Mortality and morbidity Uncontrolled conflict, violence

Alienation, anomie Fatalism, apathy submission/repression

Loss of meaning

Indicators Physical and psychological health

Personal responsibility Solidarity of members Tripartite rationality of knowledge

Material Non-material

The Field of Community Control

Safety

COMMUNITY (players + supporters)

SOCIAL EFFECT

SECURITY IDENTITY AUTONOMY

Risk and Trust Critical Consciousness

Structural Innovation

PERSONAL NEED

Bilateral Relationships

Social organisation

Values

AGENCY

INDICATOR

Dramaturgical Normative Teleological

Personal Responsibility

Solidarity of Members

Tri-partite rationality of knowledge

Mobilization Stasis

Self-reliance Dependency

Framing Anomie

Narrative

RESOURCES

PURPOSE

Performance Lovingkindness

FORM

PUBLIC GOOD

TO ACHIEVE/AVOID Uncontrolled conflict Alienation Fatalism

Choice Belonging

Physical integrity

Self-worth

Personal Growth

NEED LISTS

Love Connection Control MOTIVATION

Actor Dependant

Structure Dependant

Material Non-material

Inputs

The field of community control shows the logics and dynamics of empowerment

Outputs

Need as Interests - Common Purpose

Resources Common Purpose

To achieve/avoid

Agency

Self-reliance, Framing, Mobilization; Safety, Belonging, Choice.

Dependency, Anomie, Stasis; Violence, Alienation, Fatalism.

Equity

Exploitation

Inputs Outputs

The outcome of agency is contingent on the power relation, being either horizontal (equity) or vertical (exploitation).

Need as Motivation - Psychological Empowerment

Psychological empowerment: Agency progresses from actors to structures – 2 step process.

Resources (social)

Public goods (group entity)

Needs lists (person)

Motivation

Equity/Exploitation

Actor Dependent

Structure Dependent

The Field of Community Control

Safety

COMMUNITY (players + supporters)

SOCIAL EFFECT

SECURITY IDENTITY AUTONOMY

Risk and Trust Critical Consciousness

Structural Innovation

PERSONAL NEED

Bilateral Relationships

Social organisation

Values

AGENCY

INDICATOR

Dramaturgical Normative Teleological

Personal Responsibility

Solidarity of Members

Tri-partite rationality of knowledge

Mobilization Stasis

Self-reliance Dependency

Framing Anomie

Narrative

RESOURCES

PURPOSE

Performance Lovingkindness

FORM

PUBLIC GOOD

TO ACHIEVE/AVOID Uncontrolled conflict Alienation Fatalism

Choice Belonging

Physical integrity

Self-worth

Personal Growth

NEED LISTS

Love Connection Control MOTIVATION

Actor Dependant

Structure Dependant

Material Non-material

Inputs

Outputs

Lifeworld Power: psychological empowerment

System Power: significant interests

The Empowering Community

•Motivation/Incentive (push/pull) – a balance of everyone having a legitimate reason for participating that is personal and is reinforced by the solidary and purposive outcomes of participation.

•Communicative Action – the effort and contribution of every person to the production of public goods is systematically noticed and acknowledged in the procedures of discourse.

•Public goods produced – risk and trust, critical consciousness, structural innovation

•Common purpose – everyone in the group has a belief in the real existence of a common purpose that explains why we are working together.

Transformative and Ameliorative Organisation

Empowerment - transformative

Selective process to form relationship Adaptability Local Methods High Trust High Autonomy Public Dialogue Tolerance of trial and error Minimal organisation Minimum standards

Service Delivery - ameliorative

Competitive tender process Contractual obligations Experts and professionalism Low Trust Low Autonomy Executive control Contractual Compliance Standardised requirements Ex Post Control and Measurement

Theorising Empowerment in the Pacific and Indigenous Australia