Overview
Conscientization is the process through which individuals develop the critical consciousness required to participate in shaping the social, political, economic systems that power dynamics exist in.
History and Etymology
The modern usage of the term was popularized by Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) which discussed the ways that individuals facing oppressive systems that marginalize them moved from passive dispositions or learned helplessness to become actively self-empowered within the systems they live in.