TY  - UNPB
UR  - http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573036
TI  - Empowerment, young people and health
ID  - discovery10020617
N1  - Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2011.
EP  - 393
AV  - public
N2  - This study has examined concepts of empowerment as they relate to young people's health.
Beginning with an analysis of recent theories of power, the thesis offers a critical
exploration of the conceptualisation of empowerment and identifies how current uses of
the term appear to have moved away from many of their original theoretical underpinnings.
Identifying these theoretical tensions provided the impetus for an empirical enquiry which
sought to critically question the relationship between empowerment and young people's
health. The goal of the investigation was to reveal the possibilities for, and limitations of,
empowerment among young people.
Informed by an interpretivist epistemology and drawing upon ethnographic methods, data
were collected from young people aged 15-16 years through focus group discussions,
individual interviews and observational data in a school and surrounding community
settings. Themes drawn from the research were analysed for their implications for `emic'
conceptualisations of health and empowerment. Key findings pointed to young people's
preference for more positive understandings of young people and their health. Participants
described how dominant perceptions of young people as 'immature' and 'risky' negatively
impacted on their health; shaping subsequent possibilities for, and limitations of, their
empowerment. Based on study findings and informed by Steven Lukes' (2005) tripartite
perspective on power, the thesis offers a new conceptual framework for understanding the
concept of empowerment and its relationship to young people's health.
Y1  - 2011///
PB  - Institute of Education, University of London
A1  - Spencer, Grace
M1  - Doctoral
ER  -