Concepts in dispute in Occupational Therapy

• Grant number: 23/14705-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Serrata Malfitano
• Grantee: Ana Paula Serrata Malfitano
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Deborah Rudman ; Jaime Daniel Leite Junior ; Patrícia Leme de Oliveira Borba ; Rebecca Aldrich ; Roseli Esquerdo Lopes

Abstract

This project aims to discuss the concepts that underlie the area of occupational therapy to carry out its actions, having as justification the increase debates around the theoretical-methodological diversity rooted locally, which involves histories, cultures, and vocabularies. Starting from the concepts about the locus of professional action: human activity, occupation, everyday life and ways of life, as well as those related to the purpose of the action: occupational engagement, social insertion/inclusion, emancipation/autonomy and social participation; the plurality of its use is defended to express diverse manifestations and variations of the profession around the world. From social occupational therapy and critical occupational science, a debate is proposed on the concepts of social insertion, social inclusion, social participation, and social transformation as those that inform occupational-therapeutic actions in social life, looking at all fields of practice. This process will be carried out through: a) conceptual review of the literature about the productions on the concepts of social insertion, social inclusion, social participation, and social transformation; b) conducting thematic debates with researchers, in order to create conceptual syntheses, with authors from Latin America and Anglo-Saxon countries. It is expected that the project will contribute with greater methodological rigor for the profession, as well as with developments in the foundation of its contemporary practice in the face of the social challenges experienced, for which there is a growing demand for technical-professional action. (AU)