Participatory settings and strategies can empower people. Actors in education, social work, politics, and the arts aim to enlarge the autonomy and self-determination of individuals and communities, citizens and non-citizens. The concept is criticized for an underlying diagnosis of deficiencies, which is answered by an accentuation of potentials. Empowering qualities are ascribed to the arts in particular. However, the arts should not be forced into a context of promising or guaranteeing empowerment within structures of increasing powerlessness (Gunsilius 2019).
Ref. : Gunsilius, Maike (2019): Dramaturgien postmigrantischer Performance. Citizenship in kultureller Bildung und künstlerischer Forschung. HafenCity University. Available at: https://edoc.sub.uni-hamburg.de//hcu/volltexte/2019/514/