ABSTRACT
In social justice activism, perhaps more than in other professional settings, the ideology that supports our daily work is embedded in terminologies used in such a way as to become a kind of shorthand. For many of us, particularly those working under the pressure of the continually expanding need for care and community involvement, the concepts that ground the practice can be obscured, our concern for the welfare of others taken for granted as a positive in itself. This chapter begins with an attempt to address some of the assumptions and the critiques that inform and support the actions of so many, across disciplines and responsibilities. The last part of the chapter examines some of the terminologies commonly used in the fi elds where interactions are often enacted in the name of empowerment, and it outlines the relevance of these ideas, fi rst in the context of the work we do in the service of others, and then for the methodological choices we must make in researching the voices of the margins.
