Dr. Silke Dennhardt
Dr. Sandra Schiller
Following the 2017 Occupational Science Europe conference “Meeting in Diversity: Occupation as a Common Ground”, JOS is calling for papers based on presentations to the conference as well as new submissions relevant to the conference theme. Its interdisciplinary and international focus aimed to create a meeting place to explore and advance diverse perspectives on occupation from and for Europe. By encouraging out-of-the-box thinking across disciplines and beyond traditional modes of thought, both the conference and the special issue hope to link different disciplinary and international approaches and theories to strengthen understandings of occupation as the common ground from which to view important societal issues.
Theoretical, research, historical, and review papers that offer diverse perspectives of occupation will be accepted. In particular, this issue aims to reflect current issues, impulses and developments in Europe which show the interconnectedness of research and experiences on this continent with occupational science worldwide.
Papers might relate to Europe in the following ways:
Occupational Science Perspectives from Europe: We are inviting papers that originate in Europe, with a focus on dimensions of occupation in a European country, or describing occupation-based research in Europe.
Occupational Science Perspectives for Europe: We are also inviting papers that relate to perspectives, challenges and strengths of growing occupational science in Europe.
Papers from non-European countries that present perspectives relevant for and with potential to advance the development of European occupational science are warmly welcomed, as well as papers that have not been presented yet but relate to Occupational Science Europe in one of the above ways.
Examples of topics include:
Occupation, Diversity, Justice and Social Transformation
○ Examining the potential of an occupation-based approach to address issues of diversity, justice and transformation in contemporary societies
○ Occupational perspectives on diversity of languages and cultures
○ Social transformation and experience with recent and previous system changes
○ Experiences of occupation in the context of war, displacement and forced migration
○ Contemporary issues of gender and sexuality
Occupation as a Common Ground: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
○ Exploring the role of occupation as the common ground in diverse interdisciplinary perspectives, experiences and traditions
Occupation: Its Theories and Concepts in Critique/Debate
○ Investigating theories and concepts for understanding and studying occupation
○ Introducing and debating the theoretical and methodological foundations and application of occupational science
○ Theoretical work rooted in the European philosophers
○ Methodology papers that address the challenges of research crossing national boundaries
○ Knowledge dissemination in occupational science into diverse contexts
○ The role of colonizing knowledges on occupation
Occupation In and Throughout Everyday Life
○ Understanding everyday occupation, its contexts and meanings
○ Exploring occupations from various perspectives, such as life cycle, culture, and identity
○ Exploring personal experiences of occupational transitions
Occupation Between Paid Work, Voluntary Work, and Unemployment
○ Examining occupation as paid work, voluntary work, and with regard to unemployment
○ Discussing issues such as work mobility, productivity, over-, under- and unemployment, neoliberal labor and welfare policies and changing work contexts (e.g. due to the effects of digitalisation)
Occupation in Health Promotion
○ Examining the relation of occupation and health
○ Investigating the application of occupation and its theories in the context of health promotion in a European context.
Guest Editors
Dr. Silke Dennhardt, Alice Salomon Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Sandra Schiller, HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hildesheim, Germany
Due date for submissions: 20th January 2018
Publication Issue: JOS 26(1), April 2019