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Collective empowerment: A comparative study of community work in M umbai and S tockholm
Author(s) -
Sjöberg Stefan,
Rambaree Komalsingh,
Jojo Bipin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/ijsw.12137
Subject(s) - empowerment , poverty , sociology , context (archaeology) , social exclusion , work (physics) , globalization , public relations , economic growth , political science , economics , engineering , law , biology , mechanical engineering , paleontology
M umbai and S tockholm are worlds apart in terms of public services, infrastructures and standard of living. However, both cities have known common problems of social exclusion and marginalisation related to neo‐liberal globalisation. Social workers are facing similar challenges regarding collective empowerment as a strategy for community work. This comparative study explored how collective empowerment is undertaken by community workers. The research participants were 13 informants from community‐work organisations in the two settings. Semi‐structured interviews were used and were analysed with the help of A tlas‐ti 6.2 (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH D‐10623 Berlin Germany). Social work in M umbai is in a context of extreme poverty and mainly within the informal sector, whereas in S tockholm most social work is done in relation to a public welfare model. In S tockholm, interventions are aimed towards strengthening social networks, without direct aim at social change. In M umbai, community workers organise people for collective empowerment to strengthen marginalised groups and achieve social change.