Occupational therapy from an intercultural perspective: reflections from double reflexive ethnography

Background: In the field of occupational therapy, as a result globalization processes, there is a growing interest in aspects related to culture and its association with health and well-being. The multicultural contexts... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
In the field of occupational therapy, as a result globalization processes, there is a growing interest in aspects related to culture and its association with health and well-being. The multicultural contexts proposes to go beyond terminological questions, to deepen and refine new guidelines related to the construction and consolidation of knowledge. Thus, this paper raises a critical analysis of the main assumptions of occupational therapy.

Method:
Occupational therapy’s professional culture is analysed through doubly reflexive ethnography, a heuristic three-dimensional model consisting of syntactic, pragmatic and semantic dimensions. We have considered data collected in different fieldworks.

Results:
The main results are related with three dimensions: semantic , pragmatic and syntactic. All this dimensiones offers a global analysis about the understanding of occupational therapy in theory, in practice and in his institutional development.

Conclusion:
The application of occupational therapy in a decolonizing way ─which doesn’t impose its criteria, while subduing other cultural worldviews─ and decolonized form ─being able to build a narrative and praxis with its own identity, not subservient to development in the medical field─ implies the recognition and assimilation of other cultural worldviews, as well as analysing theoretical principles and practices.

Application to Practice:
Thus, we suggest the term ethnoccupation as an alternative to the ethnocentric concept of occupation, suggesting a view of the latter in relation to economic, social and political aspects with the goal to be a bridge to the social transformation taking account empirical experience.