Il a commencé à penser avant d’avoir rien appris: A processual view of the construction of empowerment

Presents a case study concerning the attempts of a particular group of managers to implement an “empowered” system of working within their organization. Rejecting managerialist accounts of empowerment as distorted representations of social processes and social action, the paper investigates the “4Cs” of empowerment: context, construction, cascade and contest, within the processes of empowerment in an attempt to encourage a more reflective approach.