Editorial

Recognition that the human spirit is engaged in the act of crafting an object can be found in William Morris’s essay Useful Work Versus Useless Toil, originally published in 1885:

… a man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works. Not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past ages guide his hands; and, as a part of the human race, he creates. (1885/1915, p. 100)

In linking the crafting of something with the worker’s mind and soul and, beyond the individual—with being human—Morris carried forward key ideas of 18^th century Romanticism. As a broadly framed philosophical movement, the Romantics championed the power of imagination, seeking self-knowledge through strong emotions, drawing inspiration from nature, and celebrating individuality. Rather than historical artefacts, such ideas live on in Western consciousness. In 1962, Mary Reilly, an American occupational therapist, reformulated Morris’s sentiment as the founding belief of her profession: That “man through the use of his hands as they are energized by mind and will, can influence the state of his own health” (p. 2). In its turn, occupational science holds fast to the notion that people become what they have the potential to be, creating themselves and influencing their health and well-being through engaging in occupation (Wilcock, 2006).

New insights into the process of becoming a self through occupation heads up this issue of the Journal of Occupational Science, with Maersk (2021) offering a synthesis of psychodynamic, narrative, and developmental psychology theories. Positioning identity as an embodied and reflexive process that occurs over time, Maersk explores the idea of occupation as a source of self-continuity, continuity of experiences, and identity formation. Fundamental to the discussion is the question “Who am I in the process of becoming?” (p. 474). Self-discontinuity, Maersk explains, might occur with unwilling discontinuation of meaningful occupations, such as when transitioning into old age care, or constitute a positive move out of drug dependency, homelessness, or criminal behaviour. While acknowledging the influence of context on who one might become, he argues that people experience a core of stable occupations that support self-continuity, even in the face of fragmentation and changeability in the mosaic of occupations engaged in across different settings and life stages.

More directly addressing the hand crafting of objects and its interrelationship with the self, Daily, DiLima, Streett, and Healy (2021) compare the personality and well-being of two groups with, superficially at least, similar leisure occupations: people who build scale models and people who create visual art. This mixed methods study identifies similar actions undertaken for different reasons, such as prior research to ensure accuracy of the model versus identifying details to incorporate into artistic design, and differing levels of life satisfaction (model builders) versus depression and stress (artists). Members of both groups tend to have engaged in the occupation as youngsters and discontinued involvement in adolescence, with its re-emergence in later life speaking to its importance. However, while modellers hold onto their completed works, artists tend to actively dispose of them, suggesting that different aspects of these occupations support a stable identity as a leisure-time model builder or artist.

Ryan, Flank, Vesagas, and Tolentino’s (2021) paper also echoes the theme of crafting oneself, not through physically crafting things as Morris (1885/1915) portrayed, but through educational pursuits. Their study considered the current contexts and occupation-based identities adolescents from under-resourced communities aspire to through their career goals. While aware of educational and financial barriers to achieving their vocational goals and plans, youths who participate in the occupation-based college-going culture programme show themselves to be active agents in doing, being, and becoming. In contrast, Kielsgaard, Horghagen, Nielsen, and Kristensen’s (2021) paper might be characterised as striving for continuity of self by referencing prior occupations. Their narrative exploration of the occupations of residents of a dementia town reveals moments of re-connection with meaningful pastimes and vocational roles. Enacting occupations that link them to their past creates connection to self, others, and place, yet residents are dependent on others to recognise the biographical meaning and support, often fleeting, participation.

The shifting ground of doing things together amidst declining capabilities is also explored in Jakobsen, Ytterhus, and Vik’s (2021) study of adult children’s engagement in family occupations with their ageing parents. What is revealed is a careful process of “being in a state of readiness” (p. 525) while treading the line of when to step in and do things they have not been asked to do. The incrementally active role in shared occupations, accompanied by adaptation, planning, and assuming a ‘stand-by’ position, is depicted as an iceberg, with the visible doing concealing the ambivalence of doing without being asked and being in a state of constant readiness. Viewed from the perspective of crafting a self through occupation, Jakobsen et al. point to the care required in not diminishing the self-perception of others.

In stark contrast, Bertrand, Jonsson, Margot-Cattin, and Vrkljan (2021) look into an enforced discontinuity of occupational performance that has recognised impacts on identity: The transition from driving to driving cessation in older age. Described as a disruption that can lead to further losses in access to occupations outside the home, driving cessation is shown to have ramifications for both the person and their social network. None-the-less, some participants in the study managed to reorganise their ways of doing things, identifying what is important, prioritising personal safety, and adapting routines. Thus, in spite of discontinuity in the valued occupation of driving and, for some, the struggle to find and use alternatives, continuity of self appears to be a possibility.

Changing tack, Delaisse, Huot, and Veronis’ (2021) ‘occupational reading’ of Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space puts the case that occupations are inherently spatial, indeed, that occupation plays a prominent role in the ways space is conceived, perceived, and lived. Drawing on previous work by eminent occupational scientists Liz Townsend and Gelya Frank, Delaisse and colleagues conclude that “as much as occupations are located in space and time … they ‘are actions that rearrange and reconstruct the world in which we live’” (p. 558). This work serves to dissolve the Cartesian dualism of experienced space and physical place, emphasising the contribution occupational scientists might make to the theorisation of the spaces in which we live. Perhaps this is not a surprising conclusion. Delaisse and colleagues report Lefebvre’s perspective that “space is neither passive nor empty because ‘it is produced, it is an object, a thing’” (p. 554), thus recalling Morris’s (1885/1915) musings on the thoughts that ‘guide our hands’ as we fashion objects and spaces.

Complementing the recently reported research findings and philosophical explorations reported in this issue of JOS, the Editorial Board are pleased to include the Spanish translations of two ‘classics’. These papers are part of a project initiated close to a decade ago, when the Board recruited Dr. Lilian Magalhães as our South American Associate Editor. We have reached a milestone of over 20 dual language papers (English and Spanish/Español or Portuguese/Português). These comprise both papers submitted, reviewed, and edited in Español or Português, before careful translation into English, and papers originally published in English and selected for translation into Español, to make them more accessible to native Spanish speakers.

In this issue, we present translations of Durocher et al.’s (2014) review of occupational justice and Ramugondo’s (2015) conceptualisation of occupational consciousness. In September 2021, as I write this editorial, Durocher and colleagues’ English language paper has been viewed 42,927 times and cited 113 times. As such, it is one of the most viewed and cited papers published in JOS. Introducing the paper in 2014, I noted that their “scoping review of the occupational justice literature and its related concepts (imbalance, deprivation, marginalization, alienation, and apartheid) exposes the need for greater conceptual clarity” (Hocking, 2014, p. 371). Clearly, the clarity achieved in their review is widely appreciated, with 4,390 additional views of the Spanish version since its addition to the JOS website in May 2019.

Ramugondo’s English language paper has been viewed 8,497 times and cited in 51 publications. In the editorial introducing the paper, I described occupational consciousness as:

… a term encompassing realization of systems of oppression that give rise to a commitment to disrupt the privileges and subjectivities that sustain them. In linking these ideas to occupation, Ramugondo highlights how the things people do every day sustain oppressive ‘truths’ thus rendering humans culpable, through their actions, for what becomes of them and others. (Hocking, 2015, p. 388)

Occupational consciousness remains a powerful and relevant concept, with the Spanish translation having been viewed almost 700 times. As a tip for readers, these and other papers available in Español or Português are readily located by searching the JOS website (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rocc20/current) using the search term “ocupacion”.

The final piece in the 2021 volume of JOS is Truman, Fox, Hynes, Hills, McGinley, Ekstam, Shiel, and Orban’s (2021) account of a transnational project across occupational therapy programmes in Lund, Sweden, Southampton in the UK, and Gallway in Ireland. Funded through ERASMUS+, the programme brought students together to learn about occupational justice and injustice. In partnering with local communities in each country in turn, students gained a pan-European perspective on the situation faced by unaccompanied refugee children and by children and adolescents who provide care for a family member. Using visits in combination with videoconferencing, this inclusive educational experience created transformational change through understanding how people’s social, political, religious, and cultural contexts influence health and well-being.

To finish, we draw readers' attention to the recently released call for abstracts for the first World Occupational Science conference, to take place in Vancouver, Canada between 18^th and 20^th August 2022. The conference theme is Occupation and Society: Global to Local Perspectives for the Future. Submissions that consider the relationship between occupation and society (locally to globally) are invited. For more information, go to https://wosc.osot.ubc.ca.

As always, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Occupational Science extends its greetings to all those who support the work of the journal by submitting and reviewing manuscripts, and critically engaging with the content. Our best wishes to you all as we continue to work together to develop in-depth knowledge of occupation and raise awareness of its relationship with health and well-being, particularly as we all live through the current pandemic.

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge and thank Ngāti Whātua, the Māori iwi (tribe) who were occupiers of the rohe (tribal territory) on which the Faculty of Health and Environmental Science of Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (Auckland University of Technology) stands, prior to colonisation and appropriation of land ownership by Pākehā (settlers).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.