eprintid: 10020617
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 587
dir: disk0/00/02/06/17
datestamp: 2014-10-31 12:51:58
lastmod: 2017-12-07 21:37:17
status_changed: 2014-10-31 12:51:58
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Spencer, Grace
title: Empowerment, young people and health
ispublished: unpub
divisions: B14
note: Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2011.
abstract: 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.
date: 2011
date_type: completed
official_url: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573036
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: public
pages: 393
institution: Institute of Education, University of London
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Spencer, Grace;      (2011)    Empowerment, young people and health.                   Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10020617/1/__d6_Shared%24_SUPP_Library_User%20Services_Circulation_Inter-Library%20Loans_IOE%20ETHOS_ETHOS%20digitised%20by%20ILL_SPENCER%2C%20G.pdf