The Heart of the Matter

A diagram from the book Preparing for Peace that considers key considerations around empowerment that collectively emerge from the domains of appropriate technology, popular education, and ethnography. These considerations are that people in a setting are a key resource, not recipients; indigenous knowledge is a pipeline to discovery, meaning, and appropriate action; the participation of local people in the process is central; building from available local resources fosters self-sufficiency and sustainability; and empowerment involves a process that fosters awareness-of-self in context and validates discovery, naming, and creation through reflection and action.