The Socio-Political Value of an Experience-Based Approach: Rethinking Strategies of Collective Action

Abstract

Actoras and Kaqla explore how attention to women's personal process can support the goal of social change. The organization discussed in this chapter focuses on women's personal empowerment process. It considers whether, in the absence of a clear public goal, an experience - based approach which only focuses on women's personal processes, can still be socially relevant. This topic is explored on the basis of a case study of Q'anil, an organization which argues that empowering women through an experience-based approach also has direct effects at the societal level. The chapter discusses how other feminist organizations and international donors assess this type of empowerment program. The chapter concludes with a discussion of whether organizations proceeding exclusively through such an approach should be seen as actors of the feminist movement or as organizations for psychological assistance, and what this means for their position in civil society.Keywords: Actoras de Cambio; civil society activism; experience - based approach; feminist organization; Kaqla; Q'anil; social change; women's personal empowerment