Youth–adult partnerships for youth activism: a critique of the utility of empowerment theory

Abstract

This article examines empowerment theory (ET) for its applicability to adult work with youth activists. It argues that despite ET’s prominence within both youth activism and social work broadly, the theory lacks a universally accepted conceptual grounding. As such, adults working to support youth activists have interpreted ET’s tenets in significantly divergent ways, with implications for their work and its ultimate viability. By exploring the difficulties in delineating the substance of ET as a practical theory and outlining some of the common tenets of the theory, we make the case for adults working in partnership with youth activists to be more explicit about the ways in which they are drawing upon ET in their work.