The aim of this research is to examine whether local government can act as an empowering agent. Wiltshire is used as a case study to explore how community empowerment works in a rural, sparsely populated area under a unitary Council. The research draws on the work of Perkins and Zimmerman (1995) and Perkins (2010) to examine empowerment as both a process and an outcome at three different levels, namely: individual, community and organisational. The research also draws on theories of • power and inter-governmental relations to explore the opportunities and barriers to empowerment at a local level in England. Findings indicate that local government does have an important role in empowering communities, but not equally across the three levels of analysis. The role of local government to empower communities appears to be relatively effective. However, empowerment at an individual and organisational level is hampered by the inability of local government to respond to the person-specific needs of individuals and a highly centralist form of governance in the UK that prevents local autonomy amongst organisations. The study makes a contribution to our understanding of empowerment by identifying the specific levels where local government is most and least able to enact empowerment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:573390 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Martin, Julie Ann |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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