Journal of Occupational Science

ISSN: 1442-7591 (Print) 2158-1576 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rocc20

Extending the paradigm: Occupation in diverse

contexts

Lilian Magalhães, Shoba Nayar, Eugenia Paz Pizarro & Mandy Stanley

To cite this article: Lilian Magalhães, Shoba Nayar, Eugenia Paz Pizarro & Mandy Stanley (2018)
Extending the paradigm: Occupation in diverse contexts, Journal of Occupational Science, 25:4,
445-449, DOI: 10.1080/14427591.2018.1528846

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1528846

Published online: 15 Oct 2018.

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JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE
2018, VOL. 25, NO. 4, 445–449
https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1528846

EDITORIAL

Extending the paradigm: Occupation in diverse contexts

a
Lilian Magalhães , Shoba Nayarb, Eugenia Paz Pizarro c
& Mandy Stanley d

a
Department of Occupational Therapy & Post Graduate Program in Occupational Therapy, Federal University of Sao
Carlos, Brazil; bResearch and Development Associate, Giles Brooker Education, Chennai, India; cTerapeuta
Ocupacional, Académica Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Austral de Chile; dAssociate Professor, Occupational
Therapy, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

Positionality is a key help of occupational therapy students. Over

issue within occupational
science. Appropriately,
this issue of the Journal
of Occupational Science
brings perspectives from
researchers located out-
side the Anglophone
contexts that have domi-
Dr Lilian Magalhães, Brazil
nated the discipline’s lit-
erature. The first seven
feature articles break
new ground for the jour-
nal, being simultaneously
published in both Span-
ish and English. They
originated as presenta-
tions to the first Occu-
pational Justice and
Social Inclusion Sym-
Dr Shoba Nayar, India
posium, convened by
Eugenia Paz Pizarro in Valdivia, Chile in 2016.
Valdivia is in the southern region of Chile,
known for its rainy climate and beautiful land-
scapes. Despite its natural beauty, there are endur-
ing occupational justice challenges, with
significative levels of poverty and unemployment
as well as socio-environmental issues.
The purpose of the Symposium was to bring
together scholars and local community leaders
to establish a dialogue regarding occupational
justice and social inclusion. The event was
funded by the School of Medicine of the Univer-
sidad Austral de Chile and organized by its
Occupational Study Group, with the invaluable
two days, local leaders, government representa-
tives, and members of the University shared
their diverse knowledge of occupational justice.
Local authorities acknowledged the need for
social inclusion, researchers presented perspec-
tives on the various contexts that shape occu-
pational injustice in Chile (and the world), and
leaders of local organizations shared the work
they do to improve occupational opportunities
for the citizens of Valdivia.
In addition to evidencing different ways in
which occupational justice and social inclusion
might be promoted at the local level, the sym-
posium provided opportunities for the people
involved to meet, some for the first time.
That facilitated a process of networking to
build knowledge, foster collective action
towards community development, and show-
case the experiences of future generations of
professionals committed to promoting occu-
pational justice. Carrying that networking for-
ward, the keynote speaker, Professor Gail
Whiteford from Australia, alerted the JOS
Board to the significance of the event and
raised the question of publication of selected
presentations.
That idea was picked up at the annual face-
to-face meeting of the Editorial Board of the
Journal of Occupational Science in Portland,
Maine in the US in 2016. As part of a strategic
planning process, the Board identified the
value of having greater reach into South America
by providing a venue for Spanish speaking occu-
pational scientists to publish in their own

CONTACT Lilian Magalhães lmagalhaes@ufscar.br; Shoba Nayar contact@shobanayar.com

© 2018 The Journal of Occupational Science Incorporated
446 L. MAGALHÃES, S. NAYAR, E. P. PIZARRO & M. STANLEY
language. The vision was to receive, review, and
revise manuscripts in Spanish, translate them
into English once accepted, and publish the
final papers in both Spanish and English. Dr.
Lilian Magalhães was recruited as the JOS Span-
ish Associate Editor to work with Eugenia Paz
Pizarro and the journal’s Executive Editor to
bring the vision to fruition.
Little did we know the layers of work that
would be involved. First, we approached our
publisher, Taylor and Francis, to secure their
support with dual submission, production, pub-
lication, and archiving of the completed papers
on the JOS website. That involved working
through the details of online and hard copy pub-
lication, whether the Spanish and English ver-
sion of the papers would have a unique doi
number, how the papers would be linked elec-
tronically, and how the existence of the papers
in Spanish could be made visible on the website
and marketed to potential readers. We are
indebted to Taylor and Francis for their open-
ness to working with us to solve the technical
and legal issues, and for accommodating the
additional workload for their typesetting service
and production staff.
The first step in the editorial process required
the author guidelines, reviewer’s forms and
instructions to be translated into Spanish in
order for the reviews to be conducted in the
authors’ first language. New systems were cre-
ated to support the review process, which had
to occur outside of the usual online system,
and reviewers fluent in Spanish were recruited.
Second, after papers had been reviewed and
revised by authors, they were edited in Spanish.
Third, the accepted papers were then profession-
ally translated into English, edited and fourth,
English translations were checked to ensure
that meaning had not been lost or distorted in
the translation process. Questions raised about
the precise meaning in Spanish or most accurate
translation into English, at times, prompted
further refinement of the Spanish version.
To complete the process, information inserted
into manuscripts had to be translated into Span-
ish (Acceptance date, an alert to the existence of
the alternate language version), and proofs
checked by the author(s), the English editor (for-
matting and layout) and the Spanish editor (to
check how typesetters, fluent in English, had
split Spanish words across lines). The Editorial
Board is pleased to bring this innovation to occu-
pational scientists who write in Spanish, enabling
them to disseminate their work to a wider audi-
ence, and for non-Spanish speaking occupational
scientists to have access to knowledge produced
in a language other than English. This strengthens
occupational science knowledge production
across the globe and may be extended to other
languages in the future.
Chilean Perspectives in Occupational
Science
Turning to the papers themselves, the importance
of positionality is the main point of the first
article, by Apablaza (2018a, b), who examines
Chilean school inclusion policies from an occu-
pational injustice standpoint. While the author
recognizes some social progress, she argues that
an ontology of deficit, which relies on diagnostic
technology and asserts its rationality on economic
discourses, in fact imposes marginalization and
occupational apartheid to atypical children and
youth. Following on, Pizarro, Estrella, Figueroa,
Helmke, Pontigo and Whiteford (2018a, b) pro-
pose a new form of occupational injustice: occu-
pational displacement. In this case, the
circumstances of the Mapuche people, indigenous
inhabitants of South-Central Chile expelled from
their territory by urban sprawl, provide an appal-
ling example of how economic interests and
geography may contribute to identity conflicts
and cultural insecurity.
Olivares-Aising (2018a, b) sustains a provo-
cative theoretical discussion framed by the
works by Portuguese scholar Souza Santos and
Chilean economist Max-Neef. Working from
critical understandings of social phenomena,
the author deeply disputes some commonly
held assumptions of occupational scientists on
contemporary global reality. Then, a meticulous
examination of the narratives from representa-
tives from five social organizations from Valdi-
via, the site of the Chilean occupational science
symposium, is the basis of the article by
Muñoz (2018a, b). Topics such as human rights,
diversity, social exclusion and citizen partici-
pation are interrogated to explore the course of
actions pursued by each narrator/organization
in search of occupational justice.

The Participatory Occupational Justice Fra-
mework (POJF), originally published in 2005,
is revisited by Whiteford, Jones, Rahal, and Sule-
man (2018a, b) to reflect on the multi-layered
instances of social injustices. This keynote
address, presented by Professor Whiteford on
behalf of all four authors, illustrates the possibi-
lities of transformative action through three case
narratives that evidence the power of POJF as a
tool for collective collaboration aiming to bring
about social change. Drawing from these
examples, Whiteford challenged the audience
to articulate local ways of thinking and acting
to fight social injustice.
Carrasco (2018a, b) articulates the concept of
occupational apartheid to governmentality
theories to unpack the sometimes disregarded
limitations of health care practitioners in the
contemporary Chilean mental health field. Simi-
larly, Yañez and Zúñiga (2018a, b) contemplate
the foundations of the Chilean legal structure
regarding disability, to explore the longstanding
medical approach and its influence over the
accomplishment of occupational justice by per-
sons with disabilities. It should be noted that
these seven articles clearly illustrate how some
of the foundational concepts explored by occu-
pational scientists can be relevant and powerful,
despite contextual discrepancies. They are beau-
tiful examples of diverse and socially committed
scholarship.
Beyond a Western Paradigm
The remaining three feature articles in this last
issue of JOS for 2018 were submitted in response
to a call for papers addressing the theme Occu-
pation: Beyond a Western Paradigm. In promot-
ing this theme, we anticipated that occupational
scientists might be positioned to push beyond
Western assumptions of individualism, auton-
omy, purposefulness and meaning, progress
and dominance over the environment. Our
hope was that enough of us had shifted out of
the ‘comfort zone’ to undertake research that
challenges, acknowledges, and celebrates the
diversity in which people live and ‘do’. Of the
small number of submissions received, three
were accepted and are published in this issue.
The restrained response raises questions such
as: Is research that moves beyond a Western
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE 447
paradigm valued as a priority within the disci-
pline? What needs to happen to raise awareness
of, and discussion regarding, occupation beyond
the hegemonic white discourse? How do we
access the voices of those who are undertaking
such research? It appears more time and conver-
sations are required. However, we remain hope-
ful that we will receive increased submissions in
the future, particularly from researchers from
the global south whose everyday experience
and research can enrich our science with broader
perspectives of occupation.
The first article, by Barcelos Pontes, Pereira
de Almeida, Polatajko, and Davis (2018), con-
siders how the context within which children
are raised influences their choice of occupation.
Ninety-eight children from Brazil and Canada
completed the Pediatric Activity Card Sort
(PACS). From a macro perspective, it would
appear that children’s participation is similar in
both countries. Cultural influences are evident,
however, with Brazilian children undertaking
more personal care occupations and Canadian
children favouring hobbies and sports. This
study underlines the importance of examining
the influence of cultural context on occupation
both across countries and within cultural groups.
Because it presents findings relevant to Brazilian
occupational scientists, this paper will be trans-
lated into Portuguese over the next few months
and published on the JOS website.
Moving from a direct comparison of occu-
pation as influenced by Western and non-wes-
tern contexts, Chisman and Brooks (2018)
explore how meditation, an occupation with
roots in the East that is becoming increasingly
popular in the West, sheds light on the nature
of being and belonging. Interviews with medita-
tors of the Buddhist Triratna tradition reveal
that what could be seen as ‘individual’ occu-
pation, is actually an opportunity for developing
a collective identity so that being and belonging
are experienced as interconnected and co-aris-
ing. This study points the way to how research-
ing non-western occupations can facilitate
greater understanding of concepts, such as
being and belonging, which have arisen out of
a Western paradigm.
Next, Huff, Laliberte Rudman, Magalhães,
and Lawson (2018) utilise the theoretical lens
of Africana Womanism to reconsider implicit
448 L. MAGALHÃES, S. NAYAR, E. P. PIZARRO & M. STANLEY
assumptions regarding gendered, specifically
women’s, occupations. In what can only be
described as a thought provoking and eloquent
argument, these authors explore notions of
situationality, holism and collectivity to reframe
understandings of women’s occupations. In
doing so, they challenge occupational scientists
to move well beyond the Western paradigm; to
evaluate the very foundations upon which
understandings of occupation are constructed
and to use this knowledge to be catalysts of
change in responding to social injustices.
Looking Forward
Join us in celebrating the fruition of our plan to
support Spanish speaking authors to submit
and refine their ideas in their native language,
then to make their insights accessible to readers
reliant on English. Supplemented by the work
of authors who took up the challenge to submit
perspectives from ‘beyond a Western paradigm’,
this issue of JOS showcases the rich understand-
ings emerging from parts of the world that have
been relatively silent in the occupational science
discourse. It is the intention of the Board of the
Journal of Occupational Science to extend the
dialogue, both in accepting submissions in Span-
ish in the coming years and through future
Special Issues of JOS: one featuring papers from
the 2017 Occupational Science Europe sym-
posium and one with papers drawn from the
2018 World Federation of Occupational Thera-
pists Congress in 2018. These ongoing develop-
ments will push the boundaries of current
understandings, fulfilling the journal’s purpose
in promoting the growth of occupational science
as a distinct and valuable body of knowledge.
ORCID
Lilian Magalhães
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3666-3685
Eugenia Paz Pizarro
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5787-7642
Mandy Stanley
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7958-5181
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