POPULAR EDUCATION IN TIMOR-LESTE: PAST AND PRESENT EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER 6
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF ‘EMPOWERMENT’ AND ‘PARTICIPATION’ IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Elsa J. Araujo Pinto
Community development program occurs in different parts of the world and in different periods. In the end, all works aim at contributing to the development and betterment of the community and its members. Among various definition of community development, the author particularly will focus on one definition that defines community development as ‘the process of creating or increasing solidarity and agency’ (Bhattacharyya, 1995, as cited in Hustedde & Ganowicz, 2002, p. 3). In addition, agency refers to the action of building the capacity to understand, to create, to act and to reflect. Among other elements, community empowerment and active participation are considered as the key elements for community development programs. Therefore, this essay will seek to answer the question ‘How far have empowerment and active participation been successful for community development?’, focusing on analysing the effects of empowerment and participation. Firstly, this essay provides the definitions of empowerment and active participation in community development based on the literature. Secondly, it will analyse the effects of empowerment and partic77
