Participation in everyday occupations influences people's health and well-being. To enable individuals to do the activities they want and need to do is the main concern of occupational therapy practice. Many daily occupations are universal, but they also depend on culture. The development of the Activity Card Sort in eight countries has offered the opportunity to describe occupations across cultures. In the developmental process of culturally relevant versions of the Activity Card Sort by occupational therapists in each country, the instrument versions included samples of older adults (N = 468). These data are used in the current description with the aim of identifying central activities across cultures and central activities for Asian and Western cultures. Te n activities were identified as being central across cultures (i.e., more than half of the older adults in all eight countries performed them). They were the following: shopping in a store, doing grocery shopping, doing dishes, doing laundry, reading books or magazines, sitting and thinking, watching television, listening to radio or music, visiting with friends and relatives, and talking on the telephone. Further, 16 additional activities central to Asian culture and 18 activities central to Western culture were identified. The identification of central activities deepens knowledge of activities with cultural significance. This knowledge is needed in clinical practice and multicultural research. This description provides a starting point for further exploration of everyday occupations among older adults.
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BackgroundRefugees encounter texts such as course books, pamphlets and exams during mandatory integration in the Netherlands. Texts present explicit or implicit messages to refugees on “successful” integration and citizenship.The What’s the Problem Represented to Be? (WPR) approach from Carol Bacchi, allows us to understand how texts are a presentation of governments see problems, and what is needing to be fixed. Applying an occupational lens facilitates identification of occupations promoted as desirable or discouraged towards those striving for citizenship.Relevance:Discourse in integration programs can be considered as a tool of governance, aiming to promote “acceptable” everyday occupations during the transition to citizenship.Aim:This presentation aims to present findings of an initial analysis for discussion. The main aim of the research project, is to explore the impact of differing discourses in integration programs in the Netherlands, including government and citizen programs, to understand the consequences of these discourses on the lives of refugees.Identify Gaps: This research addresses important gaps in current integration research. Firstly, this research focuses on texts in practice, while previous research has largely focused on the policy texts. Secondly, this research program will focus on not only government integration programs, but also those who are being initiated and facilitated by citizens in the Netherlands’.Theoretical Foundation:Theoretical approach inspired by Foucault governmentality. Critical analysis of discourse in texts is informed by Bacchi’s WPR approach. Concept of citizenship will be framed with Isin’s concept of acts of citizenship. Theories from occupational science, such as occupational possibilities, will facilitating understanding of how occupations are promoted in practice.Conclusion:Textual documents, utilized in practice, are important to include when exploring the relationship between discourse and everyday doing. It is important to consider discourse as a tool of governance and how it impacts on the occupational engagement of refugees.
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Background: Smoking is an avoidable risk factor for diseases, impacting socioeconomic and health care systems globally. The meaning, purposes, and values related to continued smoking after being diagnosed with COPD have not yet been sufficiently explored from an occupational perspective. Gaining an understanding of why people continue to engage in health-compromising or harmful occupations facilitates a more inclusive view on and discussion of occupation. The purpose of this study was to explore meaning construction regarding the occupation of tobacco smoking of people living with COPD in Germany. Methods: This study applied an interpretative phenomenology analysis (IPA) approach to explore the lived experience of people living with COPD who continue to smoke. Four participants were interviewed. Their accounts were then analysed following IPA guidelines. Findings: Three themes emerged from the data: Set in stone, Forbidden fruit, and To wear sackcloth and ashes. Smoking was experienced as a meaningful occupation, and it was especially valued for how it structured the day. Smoking was a familiar habit, and it supported emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being, and contributed to sense of identity. Conclusion: The findings illustrate the importance of understanding occupations that are not positively related to physical health and well-being because of their harmful nature. The findings of this study suggest that occupations do not need to be health-promoting, productive, or reasonable to be meaningful to individuals—meaning is constructed by subjective perceptions of enjoyment, pleasure, and well-being and by experiencing a sense of restoration and reward when engaging in them.
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We assess the incidence of numeracy skills mismatch in five countries: Belgium, Chile, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States of America. To do this, we make use of a new approach (Brun-Schamme & Rey, 2021), namely by identifying someone as being mismatched if the score for numeracy skills is outside the interval [median – SD , median + SD]. We make use of the PIAAC dataset, collected by the OECD, a survey that measures adults’ proficiency in numeracy among other type of skills. We find that 14% of the workers are over-skilled, whereas 16% are under-skilled. Being over-skilled is more likely for men, younger age-groups, having a high level of education, using numeracy skills often at work, and having studied science, mathematics, and engineering.
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Introduction:Community development approaches are increasingly used by occupational therapists in response to occupational justice theory, which posits that both individuals and community groups may be denied access to meaningful occupations through societal powers outside their control. Previous research has found that occupational therapists feel insufficiently prepared for a role in community development and tend to use their general skill set, sometimes in combination with generic community development approaches. This study explored whether the reflective framework for community development in occupational therapy is applicable and useful for occupational therapists in the United Kingdom.Methods:A mixed methods approach was used, combining an online questionnaire and focus groups with occupational therapists who already work in community development. Findings were compared with the framework.Findings:The participants recognised most aspects of the Framework in their own practice, but some key aspects such as collaboration with the community at every stage were less prominent. They found the framework applicable to the UK context, particularly for occupational therapists inexperienced in community development practice.Conclusion:This study has highlighted community development practice by occupational therapists in the United Kingdom and concluded that the framework would support them in fulfilling this role more effectively.
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This article presents a social analysis and a spatial outline of this quarter. On the basis of two cross-sections it is possible to study the social and spatial effects of industrialisation on this neighbourhood. Petrus Regout founded glassworks and a pottery there in the 1830’s. The demographic pressure increased, the population rejuvenated, became more homogeneous (in occupations), was reduced to poverty (at least in housing) and was immobilized. The preindustrial labour market changes into an industrial one. The perspectives of employment at the Sphinx led to a crowding of people in increasingly miserable housing conditions. Further research into life-courses in context is needed to get answers to questions concerning generational (dis)continuity in culture of poverty
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Frequent claims are made for the importance of the hospitality industry, and wider tourism sector, as potential and actual creators of employment. Many of these claims emanate from industry representative and advocacy organizations, often as part of their legitimate efforts to lobby governments for favourable treatment of their sectors. Good quality universal statistical data on employment in hospitality are noticeable by their absence, although information collected by bodies such as the International Labour Organization is extensive. This paper reviews the current state of data availability on global hospitality employment (with a primary focus on commercial hospitality operations) and seeks to employ these secondary sources in investigating the question as to whether we can in fact make plausible statements about the extent of such employment. This exercise is important both to contextualizing claims made for the employment generating capacity of the hospitality industry and to shedding light on the degree of seriousness with which data might be treated in wider policy contexts. The paper concludes, with cautious optimism, that commercial hospitality is a significant global employer and that the claims made for this employment by representative and advocacy organizations are plausible if treated with circumspection.
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The imbalance between demand and supply in Dutch healthcare led to the introduction of task redistribution at the beginning of the 21st century. Some new occupations arrived, and many, especially occupations in allied healthcare, underwent major changes in scope of practice and authorization. One example is dental hygiene, which is the field of study chosen for this thesis.
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Technological developments have a major impact on how we live, work and learn together. Several authors refer to a fourth revolution in which robots and other intelligent systems take over an increasing number of the current (routine) tasks carried out by humans (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014; Est et al., 2015; Ford, 2016; Helbing, 2014; Ross, 2017; Schwab, 2016). The relationship between man and machine will change fundamentally as a result. We are already noticing this shift, most specifically in the workplace. E.g., in the field of health care, digitalisation and robotisation can empower patients and their families. Hospitals are primarily intended for clients with complex care needs. This has consequences for the tasks carried out by nurses, who become more of a ‘care director’ or ‘research nurse’. Hospitals approach this in different ways, resulting in considerable diversity as to how these roles are fulfilled. These changes, albeit diverse, can also be seen in the roles of accountants, police officers and financial advisers at banks (Biemans, Sjoer, Brouwer and Potting, 2017). The traditional occupational profiles no longer exist and the essence of these professions is shifting. This does not make such occupations less attractive, but requires different qualities. The demand for more highly educated professionals who can carry out complex tasks in a creative and interdisciplinary manner will increase (McKinsey, 2017). Also, other social developments, such as migration and greenification, prompt us to ask new questions, resulting in new paths towards identifying solutions.
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Wat is de beroepsidentiteit van sociaal werk, wat behoort zij te zijn? Sociaal werk wordt wel omschreven als een professie maar ook als een ambacht, vaak zonder duidelijk onderscheid tussen en wellicht zelfs door impliciete gelijkstelling van deze kwalificaties. Met behulp van de ideaaltypische benadering kan echter worden aangetoond dat deze twee typen beroepen niet alleen veel overeenkomsten delen maar ook op enkele punten fundamenteel van elkaar verschillen. Op basis van het werk van Freidson (2001) en Sennett (2008) kan worden aangetoond dat het ideaaltypische doel van professies het realiseren van een abstracte waarde (zoals rechtvaardigheid) is, terwijl ambachten gericht zijn op het manipuleren van concrete materialen (bijvoorbeeld steen). Bijgevolg zijn (enkel) professies beroepen met een morele identiteit. In alle zelfdefinities van sociaal werk is deze morele identiteit, deze humanitaire kern aanwezig (zie bv. IFSW, NVMW). Daarom moet sociaal werk worden beschouwd als een professie en niet als een ambacht. Dit is niet louter een academische discussie maar beïnvloedt bijvoorbeeld de positie van dit beroep in de samenleving, zoals aan de hand van de ministeriële richtlijnen betreffende Welzijn Nieuwe Stijl kan worden geïllustreerd.
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