ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Paulo Freire’s concept of critical awareness-raising in some detail, locating it within the history of political thought, political philosophy and development practice, before exploring the ActionAid Myanmar “Change Maker” Fellows programme as a contemporary case study of implementation of such community development. Critical awareness-raising proposes that empowerment is best achieved by facilitating the poor to become aware of the social, political and economic contradictions behind their poverty, and gaining the agency to take action against the dehumanising elements of that reality. The case study analyses the reasons for this program’s success, considering contextual factors and local innovations in some detail, as well as their challenges. It is argued that while Freire’s critical awareness-raising builds on the theoretical ideas of Marx and Gramsci, the ActionAid program has moved from purely Freirian conceptions to also include elements in keeping with the ideas of the likes of Rousseau and Habermas—development of civil society and the public sphere for informed rational public debate to counterbalance authoritarian power, and co-option of authorities by redefining their legitimacy and using civil society debate to redefine the “social contract”.
