Empowerment and emancipation

The concepts of empowerment and emancipation have gained common currency in recent years, not just within adult education but also in organizational management and industrial training. The notion of enabling people to take control of their own lives and to free themselves from the structures which dominate and constrain them is attractive. But in the debate about people becoming empowered and freeing themselves from power, there has been an absence of a discussion about the nature of power. This paper attempts to clarify the nature of power and the distinction between individuals being empowered within an existing social system and struggling for freedom by changing the system. In particular, it challenges the notion of freedom and emancipation being attained through personal transformation.