Empowerment in terms of theoretical perspectives: Exploring a typology of the process and components across disciplines

A variety of studies on empowerment has been conducted, but there has been no overarching framework available for practitioners and researchers hoping to grasp the process and components of empowerment in a comprehensive manner. This study was designed to provide the overarching framework across theories and disciplines for both academics and practitioners in the field of empowerment. A method of theoretical synthesis was employed in this study. Studies were chosen for review in the article based on the two criteria. First, both books and articles were not limited as long as they included theories on the steps toward empowerment and the cognitive element of empowerment. Second, disciplines were not bounded as they provided ideas for the empowerment process and its cognitive elements. It was found that empowerment might be synthesized into five progressive stages and four cognitive elements in both personal and collective empowerment. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.