Paths to Empowerment

User involvement and user empowerment are both high profile issues throughout the public sector. This original and lively contribution to the evolving debates on empowerment in practice and research terms focuses on what those in the front line as campaigners, workers and researchers are thinking and doing. The edited collection provides accounts from the perspectives of user activists, professionals and researchers who have, to various degrees, sought to work in partnership, and highlights the potential tensions and difficulties of engaging with empowerment.The report is divided into two sections: Part One looks at definitions of empowerment, existing models and practice, and Part Two discusses issues for research and researchers. Illustrations are provided of the different, and sometimes conflicting, voices to emerge from within the user movement and from among voluntary and statutory sector allies.The authors seek to find paths to empowerment based on inclusive methods of working, to discover ways in which researchers and teachers, people who use services, and people who provide services could develop a better understanding of each other's experiences, concerns and skills. Paths to empowerment builds a bridge between academic researchers and those engaged in empowerment projects.The contributors provide strong examples of areas relevant to organisations, practitioners and researchers. The collection will be of interest to people who are developing empowerment practice. It is also important reading for post-graduate students and academic researchers involved in health, social care, social policy and related areas and practitioners and users in the social care field.