Ponsford, R., Collins, M., Egan, M. et al. (9 more authors) (2021) Power, control, communities and health inequalities. Part II: measuring shifts in power. Health Promotion International, 36 (5). pp. 1290-1299. ISSN 0957-4824
Abstract
In the health field, there is great interest in the role empowerment might play in reducing social inequalities in health. Empowerment is understood here as the processes of developing capabilities that individuals and/or communities need to exercise control over decisions and actions impacting on their lives and health. There is a fundamental problem, however, in identifying and measuring capabilities for collective control that emerge at the level of the collective, with much of the existing literature focusing on individual measures even where community-level processes are concerned. Collective measures need to capture the dynamics of interactions within and between groups, not simply aggregate individual-level measures. This article, Part 2 in a three-part series, takes up the challenge of identifying qualitative markers of capabilities for collective control. We applied the emancipatory power framework (EPF) reported in Part 1 of the series, to qualitative data generated during a longitudinal evaluation of a major English area-based empowerment initiative, the Big Local (BL). We identified empirical ‘markers’ of shifts towards greater collective control pertaining to each of the ‘power’ dimensions in the EPF—‘power within’, ‘power with’ and ‘power to’—and markers of communities exercising ‘power over’ other institutions/community members. These markers can usefully be applied in the evaluation planning and evaluation of empowerment initiatives. Part 3 in the series uses these markers and a second analytical framework developed during our evaluation of BL to explore how power dynamics unfold in participatory spaces in BL neighbourhoods.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Health Promotion International. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Area based initiatives; Evaluation; Health inequalities; Community empowerment; Collective control; Social determinants of health |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2020 09:52 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2022 10:58 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/heapro/daaa019 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:160078 |