Rights statement: This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health Promotion International following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Ruth Ponsford, Michelle Collins, Matt Egan, Emma Halliday, Sue Lewis, Lois Orton, Kate Powell, Amy Barnes, Sarah Salway, Anne Townsend, Margaret Whitehead, Jennie Popay, Power, control, communities and health inequalities. Part II: measuring shifts in power, Health Promotion International, 2021; 36, 5, 1290-1299 daaa019, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaa019 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/36/5/1290/6056665
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Power, control, communities and health inequalities. Part II
T2 - measuring shifts in power
AU - Ponsford, Ruth
AU - Collins, Michelle
AU - Egan, Matt
AU - Halliday, Emma
AU - Lewis, Sue
AU - Orton, Lois
AU - Powell, Kate
AU - Barnes, Amy
AU - Salway, Sarah
AU - Townsend, Anne
AU - Whitehead, Margaret
AU - Popay, Jennie
N1 - This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health Promotion International following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Ruth Ponsford, Michelle Collins, Matt Egan, Emma Halliday, Sue Lewis, Lois Orton, Kate Powell, Amy Barnes, Sarah Salway, Anne Townsend, Margaret Whitehead, Jennie Popay, Power, control, communities and health inequalities. Part II: measuring shifts in power, Health Promotion International, 2021; 36, 5, 1290-1299 daaa019, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaa019 is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/36/5/1290/6056665
PY - 2021/10/31
Y1 - 2021/10/31
N2 - In the health field, there is great interest in the role empowerment might play in reducing social inequalities in health. Empowerment is understood here as the processes of developing capabilities that individuals and/or communities need to exercise control over decisions and actions impacting on their lives and health. There is a fundamental problem, however, in identifying and measuring capabilities for collective control that emerge at the level of the collective, with much of the existing literature focusing on individual measures even where community-level processes are concerned. Collective measures need to capture the dynamics of interactions within and between groups, not simply aggregate individual-level measures. This article, Part 2 in a three-part series, takes up the challenge of identifying qualitative markers of capabilities for collective control. We applied the emancipatory power framework (EPF) reported in Part 1 of the series, to qualitative data generated during a longitudinal evaluation of a major English area-based empowerment initiative, the Big Local (BL). We identified empirical 'markers' of shifts towards greater collective control pertaining to each of the 'power' dimensions in the EPF-'power within', 'power with' and 'power to'-and markers of communities exercising 'power over' other institutions/community members. These markers can usefully be applied in the evaluation planning and evaluation of empowerment initiatives. Part 3 in the series uses these markers and a second analytical framework developed during our evaluation of BL to explore how power dynamics unfold in participatory spaces in BL neighbourhoods.
AB - In the health field, there is great interest in the role empowerment might play in reducing social inequalities in health. Empowerment is understood here as the processes of developing capabilities that individuals and/or communities need to exercise control over decisions and actions impacting on their lives and health. There is a fundamental problem, however, in identifying and measuring capabilities for collective control that emerge at the level of the collective, with much of the existing literature focusing on individual measures even where community-level processes are concerned. Collective measures need to capture the dynamics of interactions within and between groups, not simply aggregate individual-level measures. This article, Part 2 in a three-part series, takes up the challenge of identifying qualitative markers of capabilities for collective control. We applied the emancipatory power framework (EPF) reported in Part 1 of the series, to qualitative data generated during a longitudinal evaluation of a major English area-based empowerment initiative, the Big Local (BL). We identified empirical 'markers' of shifts towards greater collective control pertaining to each of the 'power' dimensions in the EPF-'power within', 'power with' and 'power to'-and markers of communities exercising 'power over' other institutions/community members. These markers can usefully be applied in the evaluation planning and evaluation of empowerment initiatives. Part 3 in the series uses these markers and a second analytical framework developed during our evaluation of BL to explore how power dynamics unfold in participatory spaces in BL neighbourhoods.
KW - Area-based initiatives
KW - Evaluation
KW - Health inequalities
KW - Community empowerment
KW - Collective control
KW - Social determinants of health
U2 - 10.1093/heapro/daaa019
DO - 10.1093/heapro/daaa019
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33383585
VL - 36
JO - Health Promotion International
JF - Health Promotion International
SN - 0957-4824
IS - 5
ER -