Jaqueline Berumen | University of Sussex (original) (raw)

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Papers by Jaqueline Berumen

Critiques of empowerment and participation have focused on the limitations of these strategies as... more Critiques of empowerment and participation have focused on the limitations of these strategies as imposed ‘top down’, and based on more powerful development actors´ positions and objectives. These analysis many times fail to go beyond traditional notions of power as possessed and exercised by one agent over another, limiting the analysis to empowerment conferred by ‘the powerful’ to ‘the powerless’. However, by analyzing empowerment dynamics from a Foucaludian theory of power as ¨truth¨ and socialized norms, this essay will seek to demonstrate that empowerment of ‘others’ is not only possible, but it is a process that can originate from visibly ‘powerless’ actors in the global South, transforming social realities on a local, national and even global level.

This idea will be developed through an analysis of the empowerment strategies of the Zapatista indigenous movement in Mexico. The analysis will describe four related dynamics which illustrate the potentials and complexity of empowerment processes, particularly through a radical approach to participation: 1.The various processes of empowerment which shaped the ideological, organizational and cultural origins of the Zapatistas; 2.The local practice of empowerment of the Zapatistas within indigenous communities, through strategies aimed at shifting prevalent norms, developing radical participatory democracy, and processes of critical pedagogy; 3.The contrasting views of aid and cooperation, from the vertical processes of external organizations to the horizontal approach advocated by the Zapatistas; and 4.The broader processes of empowerment as a result of the Zapatista’s shifting of discourses and boundaries of action, transcending boundaries of space, and dichotomies of North-South or power-powerless.

This paper is an analysis of the Mexican government´s cash transfer program Oportunidades and the... more This paper is an analysis of the Mexican government´s cash transfer program Oportunidades and the effectiveness of its intervention strategy for advancing towards greater gender empowerment and improved gender relations 1 . This assessment will be based on program documents and past evaluations, as well as a general literature review on conditional cash transfer programmes.

Critiques of empowerment and participation have focused on the limitations of these strategies as... more Critiques of empowerment and participation have focused on the limitations of these strategies as imposed ‘top down’, and based on more powerful development actors´ positions and objectives. These analysis many times fail to go beyond traditional notions of power as possessed and exercised by one agent over another, limiting the analysis to empowerment conferred by ‘the powerful’ to ‘the powerless’. However, by analyzing empowerment dynamics from a Foucaludian theory of power as ¨truth¨ and socialized norms, this essay will seek to demonstrate that empowerment of ‘others’ is not only possible, but it is a process that can originate from visibly ‘powerless’ actors in the global South, transforming social realities on a local, national and even global level.

This idea will be developed through an analysis of the empowerment strategies of the Zapatista indigenous movement in Mexico. The analysis will describe four related dynamics which illustrate the potentials and complexity of empowerment processes, particularly through a radical approach to participation: 1.The various processes of empowerment which shaped the ideological, organizational and cultural origins of the Zapatistas; 2.The local practice of empowerment of the Zapatistas within indigenous communities, through strategies aimed at shifting prevalent norms, developing radical participatory democracy, and processes of critical pedagogy; 3.The contrasting views of aid and cooperation, from the vertical processes of external organizations to the horizontal approach advocated by the Zapatistas; and 4.The broader processes of empowerment as a result of the Zapatista’s shifting of discourses and boundaries of action, transcending boundaries of space, and dichotomies of North-South or power-powerless.

This paper is an analysis of the Mexican government´s cash transfer program Oportunidades and the... more This paper is an analysis of the Mexican government´s cash transfer program Oportunidades and the effectiveness of its intervention strategy for advancing towards greater gender empowerment and improved gender relations 1 . This assessment will be based on program documents and past evaluations, as well as a general literature review on conditional cash transfer programmes.