The meaning of occupation: Historical and contemporary connections between health and occupation

Headnote

Abstract

The findings of an analysis of historical and contemporary literature to uncover the meaning of occupation are reported. A hermeneutic method was employed to review Western sociology, history, philosophy and leisure texts along with a search of professional literature ranging from 1997 to the current day. The findings of the review show that as occupation became more recognised there was an increasing acknowledgment of the connection between occupation and health. Historical developments lead eventually to the establishment of the profession of occupational therapy. In looking back, the potential to conceptualise and refine current and future occupational therapy practice is opened up.

Key words

Occupational therapy, occupation, hermeneutics, Western society, health.

Introduction

This article builds on an earlier discussion of the development and use of the word occupation throughout Western history. In the earlier discussion (Reed, Smythe, & Hocking, 2012) an overview of the word occupation was presented from a hermeneutic and etymological perspective (etymology is the study of the history of words, their origin and how their form and meaning have changed over time). The aim was to show how different meanings of occupation have built up over the centuries. This article continues the analysis to show how in each new era, circumstances change and shape what counts as occupation. As the profession of occupational therapy developed, occupation became a notion that was named, framed and conceptualised as the domain of a professional group. Up until the establishment of occupational therapy, occupation had not been recognised as a notion that could form the basis of a profession. In this article the history of how occupation became more recognised and formalised will be outlined. The time frame spans the Age of Enlightenment to the current day. A broad outline is presented recognising there is obviously much more than can be recounted. The aim is to bring to the fore how, in the context of occupational therapy, understandings of the notion of occupation have changed and evolved.

Method

As described in the previous article (Reed, Smythe, & Hocking, 2012) a hermeneutic approach based on the work of Gadamer ( 1960/2004) was employed to explore the history ondeas related to the notion of occupation. Hermeneutics creates the opportunity to explore texts, and to show how...