The politics of empowerment in Australian critical social work

Critical social workers seek to practice in empowering ways with marginal groups and to transform power relations in organisations and society generally. This thesis explores how Foucault’s theorising has been used by Australian critical social workers to think about power and empowerment practice. However there are many authors who contest that Foucault’s theorising is useful for any kind of liberatory thinking or practice. This makes the use of Foucault’s insights on power to re-formulate empowerment practice contestable. <br><br>In this study I aim to draw distinctions between aspects of Foucault’s work that can make a contribution to empowerment practice and those aspects that do not or cannot assist critical social workers to think about empowerment. To draw these theoretical distinctions is particularly timely, as the term “empowerment” itself is used, over-used and misused and appears to have almost contradictory meanings when used by the so-called political left and right. <br><br>One of the limitations of Foucault’s insights on power, especially in his early and middle work is the underdeveloped notion of human agency. This short-coming in his theorising led me to draw on the work of a political theorist, Hannah Arendt, who starts with the notion of human agency when theorising power, politics and freedom. Hannah Arendt is a strikingly original and inspirational political thinker. Arendt seeks to reclaim and revalue “the political”. Her understanding of political action is considered novel and I aim to show that it is highly relevant for critical social workers in pursuing empowerment practice. I aim to show that Arendt’s notion of political action adds much to re-thinking critical social work empowerment practice by reflecting on two case studies. <br><br>The first case study is focused on empowering the poor in the 1970s Family Centre Project by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. The second case study is about equity practitioners’ work in Victorian Higher Education institutions (1990-1995) aimed at increasing the participation of the disadvantaged in further education. Both case studies aimed to alter and transform power relations and serve as historic specific events for thinking with Arendt and Foucault about power, politics, identity, participation and freedom.<br>