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COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT - THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS Anu Kasmel Introduction The current health promotion policy and practice place a high value on community development work (Robinson and Elliott, 2000) because it aims to enable communities to identify problems, develop solutions and facilitate change (Blackburn, 2000). Community development has been suggested as offering “the most promising approach to reducing health inequalities” (Labonte, 1990). It has been seen as a key strategy to mobilize citizens, organizations and communities for health action and to stimulate conditions for change. It is an approach aimed at facilitating community groups and individuals to empower themselves, one that seeks to recognize and value the health experience and knowledge that exists in the community and to use it for everyones benefit( Minkler, 1992). Empowerment is identified as a principal theory of community psychology (Rappaport, 1981, 1984, 1987), and a key concept for communities to remedy inequalities and to achieve better and fairer distribution of resources for communities (Tones and Tilford, 2001, Braithwaite and Lythcott, 1989; Breslow, 1992; Minkler, Thompson, Bell, Rose, 2001). The author’s interest in empowerment theory is based in the understanding that effective health interventions require empowerment-related processes and outcomes across multiple levels of analysis. In this chapter, first I provide an overview of the empowerment concept both at the level of the individual, organization and community, but focusing predominantly on community empowerment. Empowerment both, as a process and outcome indicator is discussed and power issues outlined. Second, I describe the overlapping concept of community capacity. Third, I demonstrate how community concept is understood by different authors and in the current study, and finally the empowerment evaluation model is described. The concepts of empowerment Empowerment is a construct shared by man