COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - AN ECOLOGICAL ROUTE TO EMPOWERMENT AND POWER

An important contribution to empowerment theory and community psycholo gy practice can be made by examining how the concept of social power i s developed and manifested in the context of community organizing. The ory and practice may be further informed through an ecological analysi s of organizing processes and interventions. Lessons from a national c ommunity organizing network highlight the relationship between empower ment and power through a set of organizing principles and a cycle of o rganizing activity. Perhaps most important is the understanding that a reciprocal relationship exists between development of power for commu nity organizations and individual empowerment for organization members . implications for empowerment theory in the community organizing doma in are provided in a matrix adapted from Zimmerman's description of em powerment processes and outcomes at multiple levels of analysis.