ORIGINAL ARTICLE A Transconceptual Model of Empowerment and Resilience: Divergence, Convergence and Interactions in Kindred Community Concepts Anne E. Brodsky • Lauren Bennett Cattaneo Published online: 21 September 2013 Ó Society for Community Research and Action 2013 Abstract Resilience and empowerment are widely employed concepts in community psychology and other social sciences. Although empowerment is more closely associated with community psychology, both concepts hone to community psychology’s strengths-based values, recognizing, respecting, and promoting local capacity and positive outcomes. Both concepts also have been critiqued for lacking clear consensus regarding definition, opera- tionalization, and measurement (Cattaneo and Chapman in Am Psychol 65(7):646–659, 2010; Luthar et al. in Child Dev 71(3):543–562, 2000). This deficiency is reflected in the wide ranging applications of each term independently, and is particularly concerning when the terms are used together or interchangeably. Theoretical work on these concepts’ boundaries and interaction is lacking. This paper builds on the authors’ prior work operationalizing the processes and outcomes of each concept (Brodsky et al. in Am J Community Psychol 47(3–4):217–235, 2011; Catta- neo and Chapman in Am Psychol 65(7):646–659, 2010; Cattaneo and Goodman in Psychol Violence, in press) to present a combined transconceptual model illuminating the divergence, convergence, and interactions between the two. Both resilience and empowerment are fueled by unsatisfying states, but are differentiated by, among other things, internally (resilience) versus externally (empower- ment) focused change goals. Goal determinants include context, power differentials, and other risks and resources. These concepts have the potential to facilitate each other, and understanding their interaction can better inform com- munity psychologists’ work with marginalized populations. Keywords Empowerment Á Resilience Á Transconceptual model Á Status quo Á Community psychology Á Theory Resilience and empowerment are both widely employed and highly relevant concepts in community psychology. Each describes a process, sometimes expressed as an out- come, whereby individual and collective adaptation and advancement can occur in adverse contexts. Both concepts take a strengths-based approach that recognizes, respects, and promotes local capacity by attending to resources that are inherent and/or able to be developed within an indi- vidual and community. Both, in their best application, work in concert with local values and cultural contexts with an aim towards improving quality of life, functioning, and promoting positive outcomes. Finally, both empower- ment and resilience are mechanisms through which con- cerned interventionists might support marginalized and underserved communities. Twenty-some years ago, Emory Cowen wrote about the conceptual and practical benefits of resilience and empowerment for the work of commu- nity psychology and the promotion of wellness (Cowen 1991), and the importance of both concepts continues to this day. Few would argue with the fact that empowerment has deep roots in community psychology (Cattaneo and The origins of this article came from a symposium presented in June 2011 at the 13th Biennial conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, Chicago, IL. A. E. Brodsky (&) Department of Psychology, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA e-mail: brodsky@umbc.edu L. B. Cattaneo Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA 123 Am J Community Psychol (2013) 52:333–346 DOI 10.1007/s10464-013-9599-x