Individual, Organizational, and Societal Empowerment: A Study of the Processes in a Nicaraguan Agricultural Cooperative
Author(s)
Kroeker, C. J.
Abstract
The author defines and examines the personal (material and psychological), organizational, and societal goals of empowerment. This exploration of empowerment was primarily based on 7 months of participant observation in an agricultural cooperative in Nicaragua in 1989. This study shows that some factors in the cooperative setting enhanced empowerment at each level, while others impeded its development. The cooperative met immediate needs, and provided social status and a degree of autonomy in society. Its structure allowed for broad participating in decision making and control. “Sense-making” and informal consciousness-raising processes facilitated psychological empowerment. Parallels are drawn to empowerment theory and findings from other populations.
