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Learning and Knowing Occupation

An untold story: A unifying narrative of the discipline of occupational science

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Pages 208-220 | Accepted 02 Oct 2020, Published online: 17 Nov 2020
 

ABSTRACT

Occupational science has evolved into a globally situated academic discipline that is generating knowledge related to individuals and their lived experience and occupations, and their communities’ engagements that shape human experience. Although the emergence of occupational science is often traced to the initiation of a PhD program at USC in 1989, which marked the discipline’s situatedness in the academy, the roots run deep, having been shaped by earlier studies of occupation and the philosophical and pragmatic grounding of the field of occupational therapy. The landscape of the discipline has also transformed and its sphere of influence now encompasses many regions of the world. Appraisals of the remarkable growth of the discipline, the production of knowledge, and the evolution of modes of inquiry have been challenging. I draw on narrative theory to contribute to the discussions of the evolution of this discipline over time. Several key turns in the field are identified and described. I further argue that the inherent tensions that have emerged can be conceptualized as potentially unifying concepts and propose a unifying framework based on complementarity. Several exemplars are provided of how points of tension in the field are reconceived as complementary dimensions of a phenomenon rather than opposing or conflicting forces.

生活活动科学已经发展成为全球性的学科,它正在产生与个人及其生活经历和活动以及模塑人类经验的社区参与有关的知识。生活活动科学的出现通常可以追溯到1989年南加州大学的一个博士学位研究项目,该项目标志着该学科在大学中的位置。尽管如此,由于生活活动科学的早期研究以及活动治疗领域的哲学性和实际性的基础,它的根却越扎越深。该学科的面貌也发生了变化,其影响范围现已涵盖世界许多地区。对于学科的快速成长、知识的产生以及探究模式的发展的评估,一直充满挑战。我借鉴叙事理论,对有关该学科随着时间的变化的讨论,提出我的看法。标识并描述了该学科的若干关键变化阶段。进一步说,可以将已经出现的内在冲突概念化为潜在的统一概念,并提出一个基于互补性的统一框架。提供了几个示例,说明如何将该学科的冲突点重新视为一种现象的互补维度,而不是相反的或相对的力量。

La ciencia de las ocupaciones ha evolucionado hasta convertirse en una disciplina académica situada en todo el mundo, que genera conocimientos relacionados con los individuos, sus experiencias vividas y sus trabajos, así como con el involucramiento de sus comunidades, que dan forma a la experiencia humana. Aunque la aparición de la ciencia de la ocupación suele asociarse con el inicio del doctorado en la materia en la Universidad del Sur de California (USC) en 1989, el cual definió el lugar que ocupaba la disciplina en la academia, sus raíces son profundas, pues se formaron a partir de estudios anteriores sobre el arraigo de la ocupación y los fundamentos filosóficos y pragmáticos de la terapia ocupacional. Asimismo, el abarcamiento de la disciplina se ha ido transformando y ahora su esfera de influencia comprende muchas regiones del mundo. Su notable crecimiento, la producción de conocimiento y la evolución de los modos de investigación han supuesto un reto. Sustentándome en la teoría narrativa pretendo contribuir a los debates sobre la evolución de la disciplina a lo largo del tiempo. En este sentido, se identifican y se describen varios giros clave que han tenido lugar en la misma. Además, sostengo que las tensiones inherentes surgidas pueden conceptualizarse como conceptos potencialmente unificadores; al respecto, propongo un marco unificador basado en la complementariedad. Se ofrecen varios ejemplos de cómo los puntos de tensión en la materia se conciben de nuevo como dimensiones complementarias de un fenómeno, en lugar de como fuerzas opuestas o conflictivas.

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr. Grace Baranek and the faculty and students of the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and members of the Boundary Crossings Lab for their engagement and support of this paper and related scholarship. I also would like to extend appreciation to Dr. Florence Clark and Dr. Betty Yerxa for their support of this paper and their invaluable influences accumulated over the years.

Notes

1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the USC Occupational Science Symposium “Celebrating the Past and Mobilizing the Future”, held in September 2019 to acknowledge the 30th anniversary of the founding of occupational science.

2 This research was funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau from 1997-1999 [#MCJ#0607045] and by the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation, National Institute of Child and Human Development, National Institutes of Health from 2000-2004 [#1R01HD38878] and 2005-2011 [#2R01HD 38878].

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