Transformation,
“The state of being transformed. A marked change, as in appearance or character, usually for the better" *
Empowerment,
“A multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives"*1
How can effective dialogue dispel feelings of anxiety concerning injustice? Can community programmes be transformative and empowering?
This is a workshop in local community transformation, this carried out with communities living under the shadow of expanding airports throughout the UK. A great deal of work on social movements and campaigns concerns organised, large-scale, protest movements that appear, if only momentarily, to pose a threat to the state. There are a host of mutually reinforcing reasons why this shared understanding of relevance should prevail. A 'macro' approach can emphasise the role of scientific authority in guiding social movements as well as the influence of political parties. For others, it promises the merit of examining precisely those moments that promise large-scale, structural change at the level of the state.
What is missing from this perspective is the fact that most marginalised classes throughout history have rarely been afforded the luxury of archived, open and organised political activity. This workshop provides an opportunity to work consciously at a personal and emotional level to investigate how empowerment processes can occur in economically, socially and environmentally marginalised, or with a population significantly below the national poverty-line, communities can influence wider political engagement strategies.
"The most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes. What you show people day in and day out is political and the most politically indoctrinating thing you can do to a human being is to show us every day that there can be no change" (Will Wenders: in Shukaitis:2007).
* Strenga & Brown
*1 Florin & Wandersman
