Embracing and Enacting an ‘Occupational Imagination’: Occupational Science as Transformative

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how occupational science can move forward in its development as a socially and politically engaged discipline. It is argued that a transformative approach to scholarship needs to be embraced, and that enacting such an approach requires a radical reconfiguration of the sensibility underpinning occupational science. After reviewing the key defining characteristics of a transformative paradigmatic approach, key insights regarding how to foster a radical sensibility in occupational science are drawn from C. Wright Mills' (1959) conceptualization of ‘the sociological imagination’. Embracing an occupational imagination premised on these key insights would foster the transformative potential of occupational science by providing a sensibility that challenges scholars to make critical, creative connections between the personal, occupational ‘troubles’ of individuals and public ‘issues’ related to historical and social forces. Five key areas of action crucial to moving forward in cultivating an ‘occupational imagination’ are outlined, including: pushing beyond the limits of dualistic thinking; attending to the socio-political nature of occupation; addressing the moral and political values that shape and energize occupational science work; questioning the familiar and exploring the unfamiliar; and, engaging in innovative interdisciplinary syntheses.

Keywords:

• Praxis
• Sociological imagination
• Radical sensibility
• Socio-political
• Dualisms

Acknowledgements

Many mentors, colleagues and graduate students have facilitated the thinking that informs this paper. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Ruth Zemke, who has in so many ways facilitated my development, and passion, as an occupational scientist.