Over the years, the term 'empowerment' has come to be somewhat of a buzzword in anthropology and development, with some calling it the most used and abused of all terms, becoming entirely detached from its original meaning (Batliwala, 2007 in Eyben, 2015, p. 812). Indeed, what empowerment means today is a point of considerable contention with definitions varying greatly across the board. The World Bank, for example defines empowerment as “the expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives” (in Narayan-Parker, 2002, p. xviii). Rowlands (1997) meanwhile considers empowerment to be “fundamentally about power – the power to redefine possibilities and options and to act on them, the power within that enables people to have the courage to do things they never thought themselves capable of, and the power that comes from working alongside others to claim what is rightfully theirs” (in Eyben, 2015, p. 815). However, in spite of the seemingly endless debate around the term’s meaning, 'empowerment' continues to be used prolifically when describing the aims and goals of myriad projects and programmes aimed at social justice.
As we had thought might be the case, the term empowerment also repeatedly came up during the course of our fieldwork when our organisers talked about the intentions and impact of their work. Reflecting the many meanings of the term we had previously come across, each organiser’s understanding of the concept was different from the next. That said, there were some clear patterns amongst the organisers’ understanding of the term, usually related to the giving of freedom, and networking.
Empowerment through leisure activities
In Burn, empowerment appears from the leisure activities which were developed in accordance with the philosophy of involving youth who were not previously targeted by youth work and main cultural centres. Empowerment in this context involves giving a voice to those who have previously not been given one. There were no such free leisure activities as Rap, slam poetry, breakdance in Leuven before Burn for example, so they called for funding and organised workshops for free. A similar understanding of empowerment via leisure was described by Lindström (2010, p. 206) when she pointed out that the youth clubs could “contribute to the quality of life” for young people and “young people’s leisure time can help young citizens to feel more empowered”. The importance of leisure on contributing to the sense of empowerment was also mentioned by Horolets (2015). Therefore, leisure activities play an important part in empowering youth, especially those who might be considered more vulnerable.
Empowerment as giving freedom
Empowerment in the eyes of those working at Quindo involves giving freedom and a sense of accessibility to their participants. They consider themselves to be empowering young people by letting them do what they feel interested in no matter what to their status in society. Their programme Quindo perfect match for example encourages people to come with some creative ideas and helps them to foster these ideas. They also welcome people with disabilities, for instance, David who has a muscular disorder, is not able to operate the radio studio, but instead makes a programme on a weekly basis. Before he came to Quindo, he had no experience in making radio, it was merely an interest. The openness and freedom to do his radio programme there helped him to completely understand the editorial work involved in making the show. In another case Peter, who has down syndrome, has been able to take part in all activities at Quindo and gradually gain a comprehensive knowledge of the studio. Having freedom to learn the things they want in a supportive and accessible environment under the supervision of attentive organisers gives them a chance to continue their interest and to make more friends, regardless of any additional needs. In Burn, they also provide a similar kind of freedom to welcome youth, primarily by developing the activities based on the interests of participants. For instance, they have plans to start drama because there are some participants who have expressed an interest in acting, whilst at the hip hop class, the participants can suggest different styles of dancing to the teacher. Empowering participants by giving them freedom is clearly a priority, and the hope is that this kind of open and free feeling makes them attend the activities not because they are obligated to but because of their own interest.
Empowerment as creating a network
Acevedo & Stodolska (2017, p. 10) claimed that “leisure helped to serve as “glue” that bound their organisations and fostered bonds among group members”. It is true for Burn and Quindo. At Quindo, what they really try to do is working on social skills to empower young people to have the skill set which can help create their own belonging or connections. They see the volunteers and participants hanging out and having fun together. However, Broos also hopes that the connection not only exist inside Quindo but also “being able to root themselves somewhere”. Because he thinks that in case Quindo stops receiving funding, the kids can still have good friends and good networking to continue with. This is empowerment to him.
For the organisers at Burn, empowering the youth in this way through their activities is considered to important for their future. For example, some participants come and learn art, but at the same time, they get to know different things such as organising groups, events. They start with art, but then from that give them tools to develop themselves, which will be helpful for their employment opportunities and maturity. The networking taking place at Burn however is a bit different to Quindo. Lots of young people are going to Burn for example because their friends went to the activities and told them about it. In the hip hop class, there is more networking with friends, which is positive but on the other hand, sometimes prevents them from getting to know other people and expanding their networks further. This is something the organisers at Burn are working on. For example, the city organises events where people can go, have a drink and talk to each other and the organisers at Burn encourage the participants to go to these events, to take part in the shows, and in doing so develop their network.
Therefore, whilst empowerment may well be considered a buzzword, it is clearly an important and valuable tool for organisers in expressing what they hope to achieve through their work.