Empowerment and Critical Consciousness: A Conceptual Cross-Fertilization

Empowerment and critical consciousness are concepts with shared roots. Both are associated with attempts at overcoming oppression and fostering human development, community participation, and wellbeing. Both concepts have been influential in theoretical accounts and empirical studies of youth civic development. This is particularly true in studies of young people’s involvement and leadership in change efforts such as community organizing, activism, and social movements. The differences between the concepts, however, are often difficult to discern, even for those conducting research informed by these concepts. For instance, although critical consciousness provides a greater relative emphasis on cognitive aspects of civic development in contrast to empowerment’s accentuation of emotional aspects, both have been theorized as overarching conceptual frames spanning emotional and cognitive aspects of civic development. In this article, we examine these two kindred concepts and their associated bodies of research literature. Our analysis identifies opportunities for cross-fertilization between critical consciousness and psychological empowerment that can lead to more holistic understanding of youth civic development.