Empowerment in Social Work and Meanings of Solidarity
Solidarity is often defined in social work as a means or finality of empowerment practice. However, polysemic uses of both solidarity and empowerment blur our understanding of the concerned phenomena. From an analytical synthesis of the empowerment literature, we sketch six empowerment perspectives based on different meanings in accordance with specific theoretical and ideological modalities giving rise to a certain conceptualization of solidarity supported by a conditions of practice analysis grid. Whereafter we underline some theoretical blind spots pertaining to the identified perspectives, as the autonomy-condition regime in which these interventions are practiced, and the power relations with which they must deal. We conclude by considering the paradoxical dimensions of the autonomy-condition regime in social work and the challenges emerging from this dissonant context.