Antoine Bailliard

Action theories for occupational science: The contributions of Dewey and Bourdieu

Occupational scientists have argued that occupation implies action, but they have not produced sufficient analyses of action theories as potential bases for understanding occupation. We describe this situation and the corresponding need to theorize action as a necessary step for more carefully and powerfully conceptualizing occupation. To begin addressing the problem and need, we provide an analysis of two theorists, John Dewey and Pierre Bourdieu, whose writings about action may be applied to deepen understandings of occupation. Our analysis focuses on three dimensions of action common to both scholars’ theories—habit, context, and creativity. In comparing and contrasting the theories, we find them largely in agreement but also complementary. Through a discussion of the theories via these dimensions, we extend and deepen the transactional view of occupation. In addition, we offer a conceptualization of occupation consistent with the two theorists’ works.

Justice, Difference, and the Capability to Function

Promoting occupational justice is a complex endeavor riddled with potential pitfalls. To avoid causing unintentional harm and articulate their relevance to collaborators, it is important for occupational scientists to continuously deepen their philosophical understandings of occupational justice. This paper explores challenges inherent to occupational justice work and encourages nuanced theoretical conceptualizations that encompass multiple worldviews and morals, which engender different notions of health, justice, and how to affect them. Those who intervene must critique their own worldview, to avoid imposing their ways of being onto others. The heterogeneity of groups and interconnectivity of humans complicates justice work. The risk of causing injustice in one area when promoting justice in another is heightened by the fact that situations of injustice are complex manifestations of local and global forces operating through social, cultural, political, economic and historical institutions. To mitigate challenges and deepen the disciplines philosophical understanding of justice, this paper presents Sens (1979) capabilities approach to social justice as an appropriate philosophical base for the conceptualization of occupational justice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pursuit of justice through education and politicizing everyday occupation and professional practice.

Laying Low: Fear and Injustice for Latino Migrants to Smalltown, USA

Latinos migrate to Smalltown (pseudonym), USA in search of the American Dream. Instead, they face an oppressive situation in which they struggle to make ends meet. This paper presents focused findings from an ethnographic study with a migrant Latino community in North Carolina. Analyses of participant observations and semi-structured interviews revealed that migrants to Smalltown experience fear, discrimination, and exploitation due to government policies and anti-immigrant sentiment. Section 287(g) and the REAL ID Act cause migrants to face the possibility of detention and deportation when driving. Mistrust in government institutions and law enforcement precipitate a climate of fear that prevents migrants from accessing services or seeking help. The persistent threat of deportation causes migrants to withdraw from meaningful occupations and to alter their engagement in required occupations. Feelings of hopelessness discourage self-advocacy and encourage exploitation by employers. Migrants lay low and stay out of sight and thereby experience occupational deprivation and imbalance. The paper suggests that occupational scientists should engage political arenas to highlight the unanticipated effects of government policies on occupational participation. The paper provides a critique of occupational justice concepts and presents a rationale for applying an occupational perspective to analyze the socio-political implications of public policy.

Video methodologies in research: unlocking the complexities of occupation.

Background. Video methods are used by numerous academic disciplines researching human action. Occupational therapists and scientists have primarily employed video data to enumerate subcomponents of occupational behaviour, to conduct reliability tests, and to study clinical reasoning. There is a gap in the literature using video data to explore complex dimensions of typical occupational behaviour. Purpose. This paper aims to encourage the use of video methodology beyond its current state in research on occupation. Key Issues. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in the literature and empirical illustrations from a video-based project with migrants, this paper demonstrates the potential contributions of video data to understandings of identity, the physical environment, the stream of occupations, and collective occupations. The paper also discusses the unique advantages and richness of collecting video data in comparison to interviews and traditional observations. The challenges in employing video methodologies are discussed. Implications. Video research offers unprecedented opportunities to study human occupation in incommensurable detail as it unfolds through sociocultural and physical environments. Description. Les méthodes vidéo servent dans nombre de disciplines académiques étudiant l’activité humaine. Les ergothérapeutes et les chercheurs utilisent principalement les données vidéo pour détailler les composantes sous-jacentes au comportement occupationnel, pour mener des tests de fiabilité et étudier le raisonnement clinique. Il existe une lacune dans la littérature qui utilise les données vidéo pour explorer la complexité des dimensions d’un comportement occupationnel typique. But. Cet article vise à encourager l’utilisation de la méthodologie de la vidéo au-delà de son statut actuel dans la recherche sur l’occupation. Questions clés. À partir des récents développements théoriques rapportés dans la littérature et d’exemples tirés d’un projet basé ayant utilisé une caméra vidéo avec des migrants, ce document démontre les contributions potentielles des données vidéo pour comprendre l’identité, l’environnement physique, le flot de l’occupation, et les occupations collectives. Le document aborde également les avantages uniques ainsi que la richesse provenant de la collecte de données vidéo en comparaison avec les entrevues et les observations recueillies de manière traditionnelle. Les défis que représente l’usage des méthodologies de la vidéo sont de même discutées. Conséquences. La recherche avec l’imagerie vidéo offre des possibilités sans précédent d’étudier l’occupation humaine dans l’infinitude de ses détails, tel qu’elle se déroule dans ses environnements physique et socioculturel.

Ethnography and the Transactional Study of Occupation

Studying occupation from a transactional perspective calls for a focus on the relationships that constitute the situation of occupation. In this chapter we discuss the fit of ethnographic processes and the transactional perspective. We propose that the ethnographic study of occupation reveals its transactional nature by exposing influences, relationships, and occupations that make up a study situation. We argue that ethnographers and participants play an active role in data collection and that their transactions generate a co-created ethnographic product grounded in the relationship. Moreover, the scope of ethnography goes beyond the interpersonal elements of a relational situation to examine other factors such as place, objects, environmental features, traditions, history, politics, and economics. The relationships joining these elements, occupations, and humans are significant components of a study situation addressed by ethnographies. The chapter is grounded in our research experiences on occupation with ethnographic methods. Examples from our research illustrate the transactional nature of studying occupation through ethnography.

The Inescapable Corporeality of Occupation: Integrating Merleau-Ponty into the Study of Occupation

ABSTRACT Since the time of Descartes, western science has tended to separate and prioritize the mind over the body when studying human behavior. Consequently, the corporeal dimension of human activity is often overlooked in studies of participation in meaningful occupation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the bodys fundamental and active role in sensory perception and to encourage occupational scientists to consider the body as an intelligent and intentional repository of experiential knowledge that is predisposed to draw an actor towards particular behaviors at a pre-reflective level. To achieve this end, we present a focused discussion on Merleau-Pontys concepts of the corporeality of perception, grip, coupling, écart, and reversibility. These concepts enable occupational scientists to consider perception and action as phenomena that are predicated on an active body that incorporates experiences of participation in occupation. Merleau-Pontys philosophy portrays the body as a sediment of past experiences which structure an actors perceptual orientation including the meaning-directions and the intentional arcs that the actor tends to identify among the environment. We argue that Merleau-Pontys work is complementary to the philosophies of Dewey and Bourdieu while adding a nuanced perspective on the micro-level social processes invoked by participation in occupation.

Linking Neuroscience, Function, and Intervention: A Scoping Review of Sensory Processing and Mental Illness

PURPOSE. Sensory approaches to mental illness are increasingly prominent in occupational therapy. Despite indicators of efficacy, a paucity of literature supports these approaches. This article provides a scoping review of research on the relationship between sensory processing and mental illness. METHOD. Using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework, we mapped this area of research and identified gaps in the knowledge base. We searched PubMed, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO, OTseeker, and the Cochrane Library using the terms sensory and mental health. RESULTS. We found a growing body of neuroscientific research, primarily using electroencephalography and functional MRI, that links atypical neurosensory activity to mental illness. The occupational therapy literature has primarily focused on the efficacy of sensory rooms in psychiatric inpatient settings. CONCLUSION. Research on the efficacy of sensory approaches needs to be expanded, including on how atypical sensory processing in adults with mental illness affects meaningful occupational participation.

The relationship of macro and micro processes in Merleau-Ponty: A response to Cutchin

ABSTRACT Cutchin’s commentary on Bailliard, Carroll, and Dallman (2018) posed the question “how can/should the micro and macro be related so that they are viewed as part of the same processes of occupation and life?” (p. 238). This response engages Cutchin’s question by focusing on aspects of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy which enfold micro and macro processes into everyday action. Through his concepts of reversibility, écart, and coupling, Merleau-Ponty portrays micro and macro processes as co-constitutive and mutually transformative such that they encroach upon each other and cannot be understood separately. We believe Merleau-Ponty offers valuable insight into how these relationships function at all levels of occupational participation.