Community Empowerment
Political science research indicates that the solution to structural inequity is community empowerment through self-determination and solidarity (Olson, 2004; Hooker; Reese).
Communal Self-Reliance
Self-determination is the ability to control resources and protect the rights and liberties of community members without reliance on or manipulation from external forces.
In more practical terms, self determination is the ability for a community to deploy resources to improve the well-being of its members without without opposition or manipulation from by external forces.
Communal Solidarity
References
- Hooker, J. (2009). Race and the Politics of Solidarity. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Reese, A. M. (2019). Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. University of North Carolina Press.
- Olson, J. (2004). The Abolition of White Democracy. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.