SWP 335 Lecture 1: Week 2
22 Nov 2017
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Binary- one side or the other, no in between. Society divided into 2 types of people: powerful vs powerless: power is fixed. If i need to empower someone, you lose your power to give to someone. I will lose a little power and they gain a little power: hard to treat clients as equals, not power over, power= give and take (power should be 50/50, don(cid:585)t know li nt(cid:585)s n ds. Social construction of reality power is fluid, reality changes. I" you hav pow r, ut you don(cid:585)t us it, th n it(cid:585)s quival nt to not having pow r. Power relations are created through everyday interactions. Power & empowerment= problematic in this viewpoint: power as a commodity, conceptualize power as something material that can be transferred from one person/group to another, ex: if a worker empowers a service user= the worker becomes disempowered. Knowledge is socially constructed through human activities through lived experiences.
