Abstrak: Munculnya konsep pemberdayaan masyarakat (social empowerment) sebagai akibat dari kegagalan konsep pembangunan (development) yang pernah diterapkan sebelumnya di Indonesia (di masa orde baru) dan juga di negara-negara berkembang Asia lainnya. Konsep “pembangunan” yang dibawa oleh paradigma ekonomi neoklasik ini, begitu mendewakan industrialisasi dan mekanisme trickle down effect (efek rambatan) yang terbukti tidak mampu mensejahterakan masyarakat secara merata. Secara konseptual pemberdayaan masyarakat didefinisikan sebagai sebuah konsep pembangunan ekonomi yang merangkum nilai-nilai sosial. Konsep ini mencerminkan paradigma baru pembangunan, yakni bersifat people centered (berpusat pada manusia), participatory (partisipatif), empowering (memberdayakan), dan sustainable (berkelanjutan). Ekonomi kreatif menjadi salah satu konsep penting dalam pemberdayaan ekonomi masyarakat, sebab cukup banyak program pemberdayaan masyarakat di bidang ekonomi kreatif yang terbukti mampu meningkatkan perekonomian masyarakat. Paper ini membahas sacara teoritis konsep pemberdayaan masyarakat, latar belakang munculnya konsep pemberdayaan masyarakat, teori-teori pemberdayaan masyarakat (teori ABCD (asset based community development) dan teori stakeholders), konsep peningkatan ekonomi masyarakat, konsep ekonomi kreatif, tipologi masyarakat dalam pemberdayaan masyarakat, serta alur pemberdayaan masyarakat melalui pembentukan Badan Usaha Milik Desa (BUM Desa). Kata Kunci: Pemberdayaan Masyarakat; Ekonomi Kreatif; BUMDesa; Peningkatan Ekonomi; Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Masyarakat. The emergence of the concept of community empowerment (social empowerment) as a result of the failure of the concept of development (development) that had been applied before in Indonesia (in the New Order era) and was applied in other Asian developing countries. The concept of "development" brought about by this neoclassical economic paradigm, so deified industrialization and the trickle-down effect mechanism, which has proven to be incapable of equitably prospering society. Conceptually, community empowerment is defined as a concept of economic development that encapsulates social values. This concept reflects the new paradigm of development, which is people-centered (human-centered), participatory (participatory), empowering (empowering), and sustainable (sustainable). The creative economy is one of the important concepts in community economic empowerment because quite a lot of community empowerment programs in the creative economy have succeeded in improving the community's economy. This paper discusses theoretically the concept of community empowerment, the background to the emergence of the concept of community empowerment, theories of community empowerment (ABCD theory (asset-based community development) and stakeholders theory), the concept of community economic improvement, the concept of the creative economy, typology of society in community empowerment, and the flow of community empowerment through the establishment of BUM Desa. Keywords: Community Empowerment; Creative Economy; BUMDesa; Economic Improvement; Community Economic Empowerment.