MAPPING POLICY DESIGN LOGICS OF EMPOWERMENT IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: A BIBLIOMETRIC AND THEMATIC EVOLUTION ANALYSIS (2015–2026)

Abstract

Research on empowerment in the Global South has expanded rapidly, yet its integration within policy design theory remains conceptually uneven. This study aims to systematically map how empowerment has been framed, operationalized, and prioritized within policy design–oriented scholarship. Employing a bibliometric and thematic evolution analysis, the study examines 1,849 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 2015 and 2026. Using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny, it combines descriptive performance analysis, co-authorship and co-word network analysis, thematic mapping, and longitudinal thematic evolution to uncover intellectual structures and dominant design logics. The findings reveal a fast-growing and globally connected research field dominated by sustainability governance, development policy, and implementation-focused domains. Across these clusters, empowerment is predominantly conceptualized as a functional outcome of policy instruments, coordination arrangements, and administrative capacity rather than as an explicit design variable linked to authority redistribution. Participation, inclusion, and engagement occupy central thematic positions, while concepts related to power, discretion, and institutional transformation remain peripheral and weakly consolidated. Although Global South contexts are extensively represented as empirical settings, conceptual framing and agenda-setting are largely shaped by transnational governance vocabularies, positioning these contexts more as sites of application than sources of theoretical innovation. The study concludes that empowerment operates primarily as an implicit and instrumental policy design logic. It highlights the need for future research agendas that integrate policy design analysis with power-sensitive theories and context-aware approaches to better capture empowerment as a political and distributive process in Global South governance.