This challenging and innovative book explores the political aspects of occupational therapy. It looks at how practitioners may develop political awareness in order to aid community development. "A Political Practice of Occupational Therapy "is about maximizing the potential impact of occupational therapists' engagements and ensuring the profession is working towards the contruction of a civic society. It is supported by twelve chapters of practice examples from the UK, US, Georgia and Australia, as well as a history of the profession as an agency for social change.

It asks: How is it possible to introduce the political into a profession that is linked to health and social care?What form could political practice take, and how could the political components of practice be analyzed and evaluated?

It includes significant theoretical chapters on gender, class and sexuality, challenges to holism, occupational literacy, and a discussion of political competence. This book will be of particular use for students exploring community and emerging role settings, client centred practice, occupational and social justice and the theoretical base of the profession.

From an editorial team that is widely recognized for their challenges to traditional thought and practice in occupational therapy, this book will be of value not just to occupational therapists but also those employed in health profession management and development, and community based rehabilitation.

Many critical analyses of disability address important 'macro' concerns, but are often far removed from an interactional and micro-level focus. Written by leading scholars in the field, and containing a range of theoretical and empirical contributions from around the world, this book focuses on the taken-for-granted, mundane human activities at the heart of how social life is reproduced, and how this impacts on the lives of those with a disability, family members, and other allies. It departs from earlier accounts by making sense of how disability is lived, mobilised, and enacted in everyday lives. Although broad in focus and navigating diverse social contexts, chapters are united by a concern with foregrounding micro, mundane moments for making sense of powerful discourses, practices, affects, relations, and world-making for disabled people and their allies. Using different examples - including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, polio, and Parkinson's disease - contributions move beyond a simplified narrow classification of disability which creates rigid categories of existence and denies bodily variation. Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday should be considered essential reading for disability studies students and academics, as well as professionals involved in health and social care. With contributions located within new and familiar debates around embodiment, stigma, gender, identity, inequality, care, ethics, choice, materiality, youth, and representation, this book will be of interest to academics from different disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, anthropology, humanities, public health, allied health professions, science and technology studies, social work, and social policy.

The new edition of this landmark international work builds on the previous two volumes, offering a window onto occupational therapy practice, theory and ideas in different cultures and geographies. It emphasizes the importance of critically deconstructing and engaging with the broader context of occupation, particularly around how occupational injustices are shaped through political, economic and historical factors. Centering on the wider social and political aspects of occupation and occupation-based practices, this textbook aims to inspire occupational therapy students and practitioners to include transformational elements into their practice. It also illustrates how occupational therapists from all over the world can affect positive changes by engaging with political and historical contexts. Divided into six sections, the new edition begins by analyzing the key concepts outlined throughout, along with an overview on the importance and practicalities of monitoring and evaluation in community projects. Section Two explores occupation and justice emphasizing that issues of occupational injustice are present everywhere, in different forms: from clinical settings to community-based rehabilitation. Section Three covers the enactment of different Occupational Therapies with a focus on the multiplicity of occupational therapy from the intimately personal to the broadly political. Section Four engages with the broader context of occupational therapy from the political to the financial. The chapters in this section highlight the recent financial crisis and the impact it has had on people's everyday life. Section Five collects a range of different approaches to working to enable a notion of occupational justice. Featuring chapters from across the globe, Section Six concludes by highlighting the importance and diversity of educational practices. Comprehensively covers occupational therapy theory, methodology and practice examples related to working with underserved and neglected populations Gives a truly global overview with contributions from over 100 international leading experts in the field and across a range of geographical, political and linguistic contexts Demonstrates how occupational injustices are shaped through political, economic and historical factors Advocates participatory approaches which work for those who experience inequalities Includes a complete set of new chapters Explores neoliberalism and financial contexts, and their impact on occupation Examines the concept of disability Discusses theoretical and practical approaches to occupational justice

Many critical analyses of disability address important 'macro' concerns, but are often far removed from an interactional and micro-level focus. Written by leading scholars in the field, and containing a range of theoretical and empirical contributions from around the world, this book focuses on the taken-for-granted, mundane human activities at the heart of how social life is reproduced, and how this impacts on the lives of those with a disability, family members, and other allies. It departs from earlier accounts by making sense of how disability is lived, mobilised, and enacted in everyday lives. Although broad in focus and navigating diverse social contexts, chapters are united by a concern with foregrounding micro, mundane moments for making sense of powerful discourses, practices, affects, relations, and world-making for disabled people and their allies. Using different examples - including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, polio, and Parkinson's disease - contributions move beyond a simplified narrow classification of disability which creates rigid categories of existence and denies bodily variation. Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday should be considered essential reading for disability studies students and academics, as well as professionals involved in health and social care. With contributions located within new and familiar debates around embodiment, stigma, gender, identity, inequality, care, ethics, choice, materiality, youth, and representation, this book will be of interest to academics from different disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, anthropology, humanities, public health, allied health professions, science and technology studies, social work, and social policy.

The companion text to Occupational Therapy without Borders - Volume 1: learning from the spirit of survivors! In this landmark text writers from around the world discuss a plurality of occupation-based approaches that explicitly acknowledge the full potential of the art and science of occupational therapy. The profession is presented as a political possibilities-based practice, concerned with what matters most to people in real life contexts, generating practice-based evidence to complement evidence-based practice. As these writers demonstrate, occupational therapies are far more than, as some critical views have suggested, a monoculture of practice rooted in Western modernity. Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu captures the ethos of this book, which essentially calls for engagements in the service of a purpose that is larger than the advancement of our profession's interests: "Your particular approach to advancing our wellbeing and health strikes me as both unique and easily taken for granted. Whilst you value and work with medical understandings, your main aim seems to go beyond these. You seem to enable people to appreciate more consciously how what we do to and with ourselves and others on a daily basis impacts on our individual and collective wellbeing. As occupational therapists you have a significant contribution to make [.] allowing people from all walks of life to contribute meaningfully to the wellbeing of others." Links philosophy with practical examples of engaging people in ordinary occupations of daily life as a means of enabling them to transform their own lives Includes contributions from worldwide leaders in occupational therapy research and practice Describes concrete initiatives in under-served and neglected populations Looks at social and political mechanisms that influence people's access to useful and meaningful occupation Chapters increase diversity of contributions - geographically, culturally and politically Emphasis on practice, education and research maintains academic credibility A glossary and practical examples in nearly every chapter make text more accessible to students