Occupation: Potential for personal and social transformation

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Abstract
The author takes the broad view that occupation is the active process of living, not limited to categories of work. Drawing on her two recent ethnographic studies of occupational therapy in mental health day programmes, she poses three questions: 1. What are the key features of the active process of occupation? 2. How does the social organization of occupation confer power on some occupations, but not on others? 3. How might (ought?) occupation be used for personal or social transformation? To support her argument that the potential to transform ourselves and society lies in occupation, four key features of the active process of occupation are highlighted: learning; organizing time and place; discovering meaning; and, exercising choice and control. The conclusion points to the urgency of changing the ways in which education, health, welfare and other institutions are organized to enable us to focus on occupation in our quest for economic security, personal development, and justice.

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