ABSTRACT
This chapter defends the value central to the second tier of cosmopolitan poverty alleviation, namely the ‘durable empowerment’ of the world's poor. Although many international initiatives have focused on empowerment as a central goal, the chapter builds on existing arguments within development ethics to suggest a conception of empowerment with distinct psychological, social (‘inter-sphere’) and normative dimensions. After defending this concept of empowerment through Charles’ Taylor's liberal recognition theory and his broader theory of ‘modern social imaginaries’, the complexity of the normative component of empowerment is highlighted by referring to the capacity of the very poor around the world to struggle for recognition by forming collective consciousness, or ‘power-with’, and, hence, forming a conception of their situation as unjust. These complexities are highlighted by referring to the sometimes contradictory effects of microcredit loans on the lives of poor women in developing societies.
