The Will To Empower

How do liberal democracies produce citizens who are capable of governing themselves? In considering this question, Barbara Cruikshank rethinks central topics in political theory, including the relationship between welfare and citizenship, democracy and despotism, and subjectivity and subjection. Drawing on theories of power and the creation of subjects, Cruikshank argues that individuals in a democracy are made into self-governing citizens through the small-scale and everyday practices of voluntary associations, reform movements, and social service programs. She argues that our empowerment is a measure of our subjection rather than of our autonomy from power. Through a close examination of several contemporary American "technologies of citizenship"—from welfare rights struggles to philanthropic self-help schemes to the organized promotion of self-esteem awareness—she demonstrates how social mobilization reshapes the political in ways largely unrecognized in democratic theory. Although the impact of a given reform movement may be minor, the techniques it develops for creating citizens far extend the reach of govermental authority. Combining a detailed knowledge of social policy and practice with insights from poststructural and feminist theory, The Will to Empower shows how democratic citizens and the political are continually recreated.

Foreword by Tracie D. Hall Community engagement isn’t simply an important component of a successful library—it’s the foundation upon which every service, offering, and initiative rests. Working collaboratively with community members—be they library customers, residents, faculty, students or partner organizations— ensures that the library works, period. This important resource from ALA’s Public Programs Office (PPO) provides targeted guidance on how libraries can effectively engage with the public to address a range of issues for the betterment of their community, whether it is a city, neighborhood, campus, or something else. Featuring contributions by leaders active in library-led community engagement, it’s designed to be equally useful as a teaching text for LIS students and a go-to handbook for current programming, adult services, and outreach library staff. Balancing practical tools with case studies and stories from field, this collection explores such key topics as why libraries belong in the community engagement realm; getting the support of board and staff; how to understand your community; the ethics and challenges of engaging often unreached segments of the community; identifying and building engaged partnerships; collections and community engagement; engaged programming; and outcome measurement.

"Great teams are comprised of ordinary people that are empowered and inspired. They are empowered to solve hard problems in ways their customers love yet work for their business. They are inspired with ideas and techniques for quickly evaluating those ideas to discover solutions that work: they are valuable, usable, feasible and viable. This book is about the idea and reality of "achieving extraordinary results from ordinary people". Empowered is the companion to Inspired. It addresses the other half of the problem of building tech products?how to get the absolute best work from your product teams. However, the book's message applies much more broadly than just to product teams. Inspired was aimed at product managers. Empowered is aimed at all levels of technology-powered organizations: founders and CEO's, leaders of product, technology and design, and the countless product managers, product designers and engineers that comprise the teams. This book will not just inspire companies to empower their employees but will teach them how. This book will help readers achieve the benefits of truly empowered teams"--

It's all come down to this. It's time to stop running. It's time to make a choice. Two years ago, Violet Eden walked away from her home, her friends, the Academy, and hardest of all, she walked away from her soul mate, Lincoln. Now Spence is gone, and Violet knows she is the best person to go after him. But doing so means facing everything and everyone she left behind. Violet must find out who she really is—and exactly what she is capable of—before the abilities the angels gave her are turned against them. She is all that stands between the forces of good and evil. The Embrace Series: Embrace (Book 1) Entice (Book 2) Emblaze (Book 3) Endless (Book 4) Empower (Book 5) Praise for the Embrace Series: "A delicious romantic triangle." —USA Today "One of the best YA novels we've seen in a while. Get ready for a confident, kick-butt, well-defined heroine." —RT Book Reviews "Strong, compelling and wonderfully flawed, Violet is the kind of heroine that will keep readers enthralled and rooting for her until the final page is turned." —Kirkus Reviews

In Empower, A.J. Juliani and John Spencer provide teachers, coaches, and administrators with a roadmap that will inspire innovation, authentic learning experiences, and practical ways to empower students to pursue their passions while in school. Empower will provide ways to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities for our learners.

Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower celebrates 100 global female leaders who are redefining power. Candid and compelling, each leader shares personal stories, insights and ideas, showing us that women lead differently and that this difference is sorely needed in our world today. While each woman is path-breaking in her own right, it's together that these 100 voices illustrate the transformative power of women's leadership across cultures, industries and generations. A celebration of women's suffrage and gender equality through the use of visual and anecdotal story-telling as told through the eyes of 100 global women leaders who are redefining power, and using their power to strengthen female relationships across the globe. Some of the women featured in the book include Serena Williams, Hillary Clinton, Christine Legarde, Greta Thunberg, and Samar Minall Ah Khan.

A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.

‘Empowerment’ is a term in widespread use today and one that is often considered to be a self-evident good. Here, McLaughlin explores its emergence in the 1960s through to its rise in the 1990s and ubiquity in present day discourse and interrogates its social status, paying particular attention to social policy, social work and health and social care discourse. He argues that a focus on empowerment has superseded the notion of political subjects exercising power autonomously. This innovative volume: - Discusses the relationship between concepts of empowerment and power, as they have been understood historically. - Analyses changes in the conception and meaning of empowerment in relation to the shifting social and political landscape. - Acknowledges the positive impact empowerment strategies have had on those who have campaigned to be empowered and also on those who have saw their role as being to help empower others. - Highlights ways in which talk about empowerment can actually work in such a way as to further disempower those already marginalised. Critically examining how ‘empowerment’ has become embedded in contemporary social and political life, this work offers a discussion of the term’s multiple meanings, what it actually entails, and how it constructs and positions those being empowered and those empowering.