“This is What We Do”: Constructing Postmodern Families through Occupations

Abstract

This paper explores incidents and descriptions of family occupations that emerged within an ethnographic study of fathers of children with disabilities and their families. Family occupations are conceptualized as an important aspect of daily life in that they build and define families. Collection of data lasted over a year and included monthly interviews as well as observations of the families. Data analysis was based on narrative phenomenology, combining literary theory and hermeneutics. The primary themes were building families through doing, variability in who is participating in the action, and the construction of family occupations. These themes demonstrate the combined influence of family characteristics and socio-historical factors on family occupations.

Keywords:

• Family occupations
• Disability
• Fathers
• Narrative phenomenology

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the fathers and their families that opened their lives to me. I would like to thank Mary C. Lawlor and other members of my dissertation committee for guidance and feedback. This study was partially funded by the AOTF Dissertation Grant.