Social Power Relations Shaping Occupation

Question 1

What occupations do you feel guilty about engaging in (or not engaging in), if any?

Answer 1

• Watching TikTok not studying

Question 2

What occupations are socially valued and which are stigmatized in Canadian society?

Answer 2

• Productivity
• Drug use, can change over time like with cannabis
• Begging for money

Question 3

Social power and occupations
- How do these relate?

Answer 3

Social power and determine which occupations you have access to.
Example, skiing is a “rich person’s sport”.

Question 4

Social power and occupations
- Can you think of examples in your own life?

Answer 4

• Social power dynamics are very dynamic chaining through time and context.
• People who retiree can feel less valued by society.
• Social power is not based on necessity, like street cleaners, nurses, teachers etc. are essential players in society, yet not valued as such.

Question 5

Stigmatized and non-sanctioned occupations, could be because they don’t have choice and are limited by various barriers? (2 + example?)

Answer 5

• Stigmaisting people who do not have any other choice than engaging in non-sanctioned occupations
• Relate to social determinants of health and well-being

Example, The pandemic does not discriminate, felt more equal having class though Zoom

Question 6

Language and occupations
- What is the relation & Why does language matter?

Answer 6

What is the relation?
Not being able to speak English could be a disabling factor

Why does language matter?
- Linguistic capital
- English worldwide capital
- Not only speak the language, but being able to speak it well for example in university

Question 7

Article: The power of language: Exploring the relationship between linguistic capital and occupation for immigrants to Canada.

Key themes from reading?

Answer 7

• Leaning English - overarching theme
• Accessing resources during settlement
• Economic integration
• Social and cultural integration in isolation, being othered, not catching idioms ‘I’m pulling your leg’
• Family, placing burden on children as translator creating conflict and tension

Question 8

Personal Experiences
Have you had an experience where language played a role in your sense of power within an interaction? If not, did the reading expose a possible situation where language may affect your sense of power and autonomy in a society?

Answer 8

• Audacity of English people assuming everyone else can speak English.
• Learning a language someone else speaks, means that you value them
  .
• The sense of helplessness experienced when cannot communicate, the deliberating feeling of living in a place where you do not speak the language -> Reduced my sense of power and independence

Question 9

Stampede in Korea in Itaemwon during Halloween - connection ot language?

Answer 9

• Language played a big role in this tragedy
• The people where from 26 different countries and could not communicate
• 154 people died

Question 10

Imagine going to another country
- You are unable to speak their language
- You may not have the resources needed to pay for necessities
- You are struggling to communicate

What would you do?

Answer 10

I’ve been asking people for help, lucky to have social support network.
Goggle translate, lack of technology made it much more challenging.
Airport guiding people with symbols.

Question 11

What if…
- You were moving to this place (where you don’t speak the language) permanently
- This was the only place you were able to live
- You had no other options

Answer 11

Ukrainian people coming to Canada, not by choice, so challenging when it is not voluntary migration.

Question 12

“Currently our professional literature and evidence-base has a dominant focus on those occupations that can restore or maintain good health, development, growth, social interaction, productivity and that promote a state of wellbeing.” (Twinley, 2013, p. 301)

What does this quote represent?

Answer 12

The core concept of occupation.

Does not truly encompass all forms of occupation.

Question 13

Othering occupations

Twinley then asks us…
“How can occupational therapy - very much a discipline that sees therapists working with a diverse population of individuals with such an equally diverse range of occupational performance, participation, engagement and justice issues - have come this far without truly considering the whole picture in terms of what occupational therapy if? (p. 301)

Answer 13

• A lot of occupations that ‘othered’
• As an OT or OS we need to embrace a range of activities socially sanctioned and non-sanctioned

Question 14

What are Social power relations? Ability to…

Answer 14

• Ability to integrate into a society and follow the social norms to gain social power
• Is it personal ability or structural factors outside of a person’s control

Question 15

What are “non-sanctioned” occupations?

Answer 15

• Tasks, activities, routines or acts that are considered antisocial, criminal, illegal, violent, disruptive, harmful, unhealthy, addictive, and politically, socially, religiously or culturally extreme.
• What if these acts, to the individual/group/community performing them, are meaningful, purposeful, creative, engaging, relaxing, enjoyable, entertaining, provide a sense of well-being, sense of belonging, etc.?
• Example; forgetting to speak Korean and learning English when moving to Canada, using illicit drug for creativity or spiritual, or even therapeutic purposes. Survival occupations, like theft, sex work.

Question 16

What does it mean that sanctioned and non-sanctioned occupations are not a binary?

Answer 16

-> It is not a binary, it is actually a spectrum

• Depending on who’s doing it, like race committing crime and treatment by police
• There are so many nuances within occupation

Question 17

Silences around occupations framed as unhealthy,
illegal, and deviant
Concept from the paper…

Non-sanctioned occupations are - Dynamic and fluid-historically, socially, and culturally?

Answer 17

Non-sanctioned occupations
- Dynamic and fluid-historically, socially, and culturally

• Residential schools, maybe people actually believed that it helped the children. Indigenous people were seen as savages so ’civilising’ them could be seen as helping them.
• Same with gender, and women’s right to vote. Even today we have certain assumptions based on gender. Do what extent do we go? Should we be treated exactly the same, bc we’re not exactly the same?
• Slavery use to be a socially sanctioned occupation. The concept of slavery is still a part of our society, like really cheap labour of live-in nannies.
• Littering in Singapore you can be canned, physical beaten publicly.
• Parenting styles, risk adverse criticism to those who do not follow these rules. Example ‘free range parenting’.
• Socially acceptable form of occupations.

Question 18

Non-sanctioned occupations, different meanings for different individuals and/or groups?

Answer 18

• Prescription drugs are sanctioned whereas illicit drugs are non-sanctioned, even though they can do just as much harm.
• The rules are arbitrary, some of the most dangerous drugs are socially sanctioned like alcohol and nicotine.
• Genital mutilation is acceptable in some places but not others, is male circumstances considered mutilation?
• Arranged marriage, different meanings for different groups.

Question 19

Give example of transient spaces whereto line between sanctioned and non-sanctioned occupations are blurred?

Answer 19

• Airports is a transient space, people are allowed to sleep on the floor, brush their teeth in the bathroom etc.
• Hospital is also its own little subculture, same with other institutions as universities -> certain occupations are acceptable that are unacceptable at other places

Question 20

Non-Sanctioned occupations, influenced by values, preconceptions, and ideologies?

Answer 20

• Like ‘The Leaning’ an isolated community who believe the world was going to end. People born into these communities did not choose this. WE all could have been in the exact same situation, being born into certain values and beliefs. Still we make immediate assumptions about these people.

Question 21

Marginalised or vulnerable populations

“Examining non-sanctioned occupations only in relation to certain marginalised social groups can unintentionally problematize both the occupation and the group, lending support to the construction of deviance”

Example of these kinds of groups?

Answer 21

• Homelessness
• HIV/AIDS
• Low income youth
• Incarcerated populations
• Older adults
• Mental health

We make assumptions more for ourselves to make us feel better instead of actually about the individual.

Question 22

What is the connection between marginalized people and non-sanctioned occupations?

Answer 22

• The fact that certain groups are practicing the occupation is what makes it non-sanctioned.
• Also marginalized groups often posses less resources to attain socially sanctioned occupations. A homeless person has no other choice than to sleep and deficate on the street.
• Criminalisation of sex work creates huge barriers for people.

Question 23

Connection between marginalized people and non-sanctioned occupations?

• Deviance is not a quality that the person commits but…

Answer 23

… the consequence of social structures and the label we place on the community

Question 24

The relationship between social power relations and occupations is complicated! (3 + example)

Answer 24

• Context based; time, location, activity
• Varied levels; can lead to harm and incarceration or scorn and gossip
• Choice within constraint; actions are not predetermined by circumstances

Example sexual activity, is it a sanctioned occupation? Depends on…
- Age
- Marital status
- Monetary transactions
- Setting, at home/public
- Pornography

Question 25

There are many Neglected occupations?

What are these and why haven’t these areas been researched?

Answer 25

• Largely unexamined in the literature
• Labeled unhealthy or deviant
• Not discussed or openly seen

Why haven’t these areas been researched?
- There is no funding
- Sense of not being worthy of research
- Many of the occupations are invaluable and it’s difficult to find participants

Question 26

What are Corrective Occupations?

Answer 26

• Reducing harm, safe injection sites
• Encouraging normatively, using protection
• Shifting perspectives, using food banks great that you are resourceful and able to find these resources.

Question 27

Implications of opening up the dynamic world of occupation?

Answer 27

• Consider the diversity and complexity of human occupation from multiple perspectives
• Recognise that sanctioned and non-sanctioned occupations are social and political
• Practice critical reflexivity regarding our own assumptions consider how they impact our research and practices
• Resist problematising occupations that fall outside acceptable healthy, or normative