Power mapping
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Power Mapping
In order to promote social change, it is important to think about the role of relationships and networks around the problem issue. Power mapping is a visual tool used by social advocates to identify . It is a visual tool and strategy to conceptualize whom you need to influence, who can influence your target and what can be done to influence them. Power Mapping is most often used to influence decision makers to persuade how they vote on an issue. It can also be used to convince an organization to take a stand, to persuade a foundation to give your organization a grant, or to compel a newspaper to write a favorable editorial [1].
Steps to Power Mapping
Before Power Mapping
- Identify and familiarize oneself with target social problem
Step 1: Determine Target
-Visual tool that should be drawn
-In the center, one should start with the person or institution that can make the decision or enact desired changes to address the identified social problem
Step 2: Map Influence to Target
-Think about associations, people or institutions that have relationships with the target individual and can potentially influence them.
-These could include work, political, family religious and neighborhood ties
should be written in a ring around the problem
- Be creative – even if one does not want to specifically target a decision maker’s family it is important to add them to the map for other avenues of influence
- Be strategic – Look at all the major donors and constituency groups he/she has interacted with
- Be Thorough – Think about the relationships from different angles and then spend time to think about what those people and institutions are connected to.
Step 3: Determine Relational Power Lines
-Begin to review the network that you have created
-Determine any connections between the target, as well as the different people and institutions.
-Take indirect connections into account as well. John Smith may not be directly involved with an organization, but may have family members that are.
Step 4: Target Priority Relationships
-Circle people with the most power relational lines drawn to them
-Identify people with few critical relational power lines that has a lot of influence
-If there is someone without a clear relationship then develop a plan to find out more about the person
Step 5: Make a Plan
-Create action steps for moving forward by determining the best way to access the individuals through the relationships determined [2]
Power Mapping In Clinical Practice
Power mapping can be helpful for the clinician and the client or group to see environmental factors contributing to their identified issue(s) as well as the potential strengths that can contribute to client well-being. Power mapping has been used in the clinical setting in order to enhance the life of the client and to measure the potential power of an individual. In this setting, the power map is used as a visual tool showing the potential assets and resources and can include proximal influences such as: home and family life, education, social life, personal resources, job situation/skills, and material resources.
This tool can look similar to an ecomap, but can go further in depth to account for the more distal influences such as: policy, economics, culture, and the media. Power mapping can be beneficial when used as a visual to determine the clients strengths as well as the areas that cause the client the most distress and how the larger system may be a major factor in an individuals issue. Power mapping can allow clients to be enlightened on the systemic or institutional powers that contribute to the damaging environment in which they may live. This allows the client to attach personal challenges to the larger system and can bring with it a “significant relief of distress” Power mapping “is likely in clinical use to vary from individual to individual”[3]
According to Hagan & Smail, maps can be used to:
1. Guide the helper and client to map current circumstances.
2. Provide a visual summary of clients' current/past position.
3. Target areas for concert ed action to increase power.
4. Monitor progress.
5. Measure outcomes in mental health interventions.
6. Compare client groups.
References
- ^ "Community Power Map Guide". Moveon.org Councils. Moveon.org civic action. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ^ "Power Mapping: A Tool for Utilizing Networks" (PDF). The Power to End Poverty. Bonner Curriculum. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
- ^ Hagan, T; Smail, D (1997). "Power-mapping: Background and Basic Methodology". Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. 7: 257–267.