Occupational Reconstructions/Social Transformation by Gelya Frank
The NAPA-OT Field School in Guatemala is a transdisciplinary, applied medical anthropology field ... more The NAPA-OT Field School in Guatemala is a transdisciplinary, applied medical anthropology field school program that puts students from anthropology and occupational therapy in a common framework focused on human rights issues. This paper by the co-directors of the field school will highlight the situated learning-by-doing strategy that underpins the NAPA-OT program and critically examine the benefits and challenges that arise for both students and the host community. Within the context of post-civil war Guatemala, field school students learn ethnographic methods by contributing to applied projects advancing health as a human right; however, the field school must confront critical issues in maintaining student safety to enable effective learning in a sometimes volatile setting. Local collaborators, in turn, are able to build research capacity and utilize the social capital of outsiders to advance local development projects. For example, field school students have examined inequalities in access to health care by conducting a study of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) providing referrals for surgical care, and the report generated by that study is being utilized by NGOs to build a shared surgical referral system to improve access to services. Ultimately, educators " in the field " have the opportunity to expose students to lived realities that would remain theoretical in a traditional classroom setting, but they also bear the responsibility of ensuring that their programs bear real benefits for the host community.
This article introduces a new way to think about social transformation in occupational science. T... more This article introduces a new way to think about social transformation in occupational science. The theory of occupational reconstructions is presented through examples of collective action by disempowered communities to achieve racial justice. An ‘occupational reconstruction’ is defined as what people do to remake ordinary life in response to a problematic situation. Occupational reconstructions are characterised
by: (1) problematic situations; (2) meaningful and purposeful action; (3) embodied practices; (4) narrative structure; (5) creative transformations; (6) voluntary engagement; and (7) hopeful experimentalism. We apply the theory of occupational reconstructions here
to large-scale situations of political activism in the American civil rights movement and the South African struggle against apartheid. The authors suggest that occupational reconstructions offer a distinctive theory of social transformation that can help occupational science and occupational therapy engage in both mass movements and more local situations relating to human rights and social justice.
This proposed plenary session supports the 6th Annual SSO: USA Conference theme of “Culture and O... more This proposed plenary session supports the 6th Annual SSO: USA Conference theme of “Culture and Occupation.” The forum will create an opportunity for dialogue between the occupational science community, anthropologists and (pending acceptance) indigenous scholar/activists working to foster the health and well-being of Native peoples. Occupational science draws foundationally on anthropology's core concept of culture in defining occupation as “chunks of purposeful activity in the lexicon of the culture”(Clark, ...
Occupational Therapy without Borders, II
How do we as academics share the emerging
global conversation about justice with a wider audience... more How do we as academics share the emerging
global conversation about justice with a wider audience
of future occupational therapy practitioners?
How can we support the integration of emerging ideas
about occupational justice and collective occupations
into new forms of occupational therapy practice? . . . In my own thinking, collective occupations are closely tied
to ‘occupational reconstructions’, a kind of problem
solving that becomes evident when people organize
themselves to make social change.
Chapter outline:
-TEACHING ABOUT COLLECTIVE OCCUPATIONS:
USING VISUAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET 66-2
-TEACHING STUDENTS TO USE AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-VIEWING MAD HOT BALLROOM WITH AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-COMPARING PROBLEMATIC SITUATIONS IN MAD HOT BALLROOM AND WAR/DANCE 66-6
-WASTE LAND: PARTICIPATORY ART AND SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION 66-7
-CONCLUSION: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE 66-8
History of Anthropology - Ethnicity, Race, Gender by Gelya Frank
American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 1997
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits ' (1895-1963) work helped to shape how African-Americans in... more Anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits ' (1895-1963) work helped to shape how African-Americans in the United States were viewed and viewed themselves. By 1930, he challenged the prevailing view that "Negro" life-ways were only an incomplete and pathological version of mainstream American culture. In contrast, he contributed a scholarly foundation to the claim that elements of African culture had survived in the Americas. His work supported the New Negro movement and the emergence of pan-African identity. Curiously, however, Herskovits argued that the Jews, another diasporic group, had no distinctive culture nor were they a people. This paper reviews the development of Herskovits' views in relation to: (1) concepts of race and culture in modern anthropology; (2) public controversies concerning assimilation versus particularism of blacks and Jews in the 1920s and 1930s; and (3) Herskovits' Jewish identity.
Disability by Gelya Frank
This article examines six cases of publicly funded Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for La... more This article examines six cases of publicly funded Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for Latino children with autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) to contribute to thinking about occupational justice. In this ethnographic study of six Latino families
of children with ASD in Los Angeles County, all families were offered ABA for their children, but five families experienced
occupational challenges leading them to insist on modifications of ABA or to opt out of the service. We consider in each case
(a) how the families’ experiences can be understood occupationally, (b) how ABA affected the functionings and capabilities
of the children and their families, and (c) how the parents’ accounts relate to occupational justice. Applying the capabilities
approach can help operationalize the concept of occupational justice as a tool to evaluate social policy across cases.
Culture, medicine and psychiatry, Jan 1, 1986
The relationship of mind and body is an issue of importance for Western medicine and psychiatry. ... more The relationship of mind and body is an issue of importance for Western medicine and psychiatry. An area to which this problem particularly applies is that of physical disability. In evaluating treatment of persons with physical disabilities, the concept of "adjustment" in social psychology may not deal sufficiently with ambiguities arising in varied cultural settings. The related concept of "stigma" in sociology is also limited, covering the cosmetic aspect of the mind-body relationship only. This paper applies the more abstract and inclusive concept of "embodiment" from the phenomenological movement in philosophy to the life history of a 35-year-old American woman born with quadrilateral limb deficiencies. The resulting description of her functioning and self-image over time calls into question the cultural assumptions of rehabilitation medicine and highlights the more general cultural demands upon persons with severe physical disabilities in the United States since the 1950s.
Journal of Social Issues, Jan 1, 1988
G o m n ' s (1963) theory of stigma holds that rejection by "normals" leads people with disabilit... more G o m n ' s (1963) theory of stigma holds that rejection by "normals" leads people with disabilities to adopt practices that help them to pass as normal or cover the immediate impact of their physical direrence. However, such an attempt to mitigate the effects of stigma does not characterize the life histories of three adults with severe multiple congenital limb deflciences described in this paper. For them, self-display, within the context of American culture in the 1980s, is a strategy for self-empowerment in which the primary focus is the experience of the person with disabilities rather than the reactions of people who are "normal." Their adaptations suggest some limitations to the applicability of Goffman's theory in a changing social context.
Bioethics - Ethnicity & End of Life Decisions by Gelya Frank
Social Science & …, Jan 1, 1999
The ethical and legal implications of decisions to withhold and withdraw life support have been w... more The ethical and legal implications of decisions to withhold and withdraw life support have been widely debated. Making end-of-life decisions is never easy, and when the cultural background of doctor and patient dier, communication about these issues may become even more dicult. In this study, we examined the attitudes of people aged 65 and older from dierent ethnic groups toward forgoing life support. To this end, we conducted a survey of 200 respondents from each of four ethnic groups: European-American, African-American, Korean-American and Mexican-American (800 total), followed by in-depth ethnographic interviews with 80 respondents.
JAMA: the journal of …, Jan 1, 1995
The Journal of Law, …, Jan 1, 1996
... with the respondent that a "living will&... more ... with the respondent that a "living will" is a document, such as a "durable power of attorney," that describes the respondent's wishes regarding health care decisions if the respondent became very ill. Respondents who claimed possession of an advance care directive, but did not ...
Journal of urban health, Jan 1, 2001
The ethical and legal implications of decisions to withhold and withdraw life support have been w... more The ethical and legal implications of decisions to withhold and withdraw life support have been widely debated. Making end-of-life decisions is never easy, and when the cultural background of doctor and patient dier, communication about these issues may become even more dicult. In this study, we examined the attitudes of people aged 65 and older from dierent ethnic groups toward forgoing life support. To this end, we conducted a survey of 200 respondents from each of four ethnic groups: European-American, African-American, Korean-American and Mexican-American (800 total), followed by in-depth ethnographic interviews with 80 respondents.
Medical …, Jan 1, 1998
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Qualitative Research Methods - Life History by Gelya Frank
... reader. Saving lives: Digital biography and life writing. Paul Longley Arthur in Save As Digi... more ... reader. Saving lives: Digital biography and life writing. Paul Longley Arthur in Save As Digital Memories (2009). Save reference to library · Related research 1 reader. Writing lives. Aspects of literary biography. D Giorgio in Critica ...
Social Science & Medicine, Jan 1, 1984
Life histories can be used to describe (1) adaptation over time to disabling conditions and (2) t... more Life histories can be used to describe (1) adaptation over time to disabling conditions and (2) the context and meaning of disabilities. Data from the life history of Diane DeVries, a 33-year old woman born with quadralateral limb deficiencies (upper extremity hemimelia, lower extremity umelia) illustrate a model for eliciting, presenting and interpreting life histories of persons with disabilities. Substantively, the life history of Diane DeVries indicates, at this time. survival within a niche of institutional supports that include marriage, church membership, and government for the disabled. Her life history is also characterized bv choices that sunDort indeDendent living in the community and a cognitive orientation toward her own cultural normaiiiy.
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Jan 1, 1996
This article defines and compares several narrative methods used to describe and interpret patien... more This article defines and compares several narrative methods used to describe and interpret patients' lives. The biographical methods presented are case histories, life-charts, life histories, life stories, assisted autobiography, hermeneutic case reconstruction, therapeutic employment, volitional narratives, and occupational storytelling and story making. Emphasis is placed the clinician as a collaborator and interpreter of the patient's life through ongoing interactions and dialogue.
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Occupational Reconstructions/Social Transformation by Gelya Frank
by: (1) problematic situations; (2) meaningful and purposeful action; (3) embodied practices; (4) narrative structure; (5) creative transformations; (6) voluntary engagement; and (7) hopeful experimentalism. We apply the theory of occupational reconstructions here
to large-scale situations of political activism in the American civil rights movement and the South African struggle against apartheid. The authors suggest that occupational reconstructions offer a distinctive theory of social transformation that can help occupational science and occupational therapy engage in both mass movements and more local situations relating to human rights and social justice.
global conversation about justice with a wider audience
of future occupational therapy practitioners?
How can we support the integration of emerging ideas
about occupational justice and collective occupations
into new forms of occupational therapy practice? . . . In my own thinking, collective occupations are closely tied
to ‘occupational reconstructions’, a kind of problem
solving that becomes evident when people organize
themselves to make social change.
Chapter outline:
-TEACHING ABOUT COLLECTIVE OCCUPATIONS:
USING VISUAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET 66-2
-TEACHING STUDENTS TO USE AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-VIEWING MAD HOT BALLROOM WITH AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-COMPARING PROBLEMATIC SITUATIONS IN MAD HOT BALLROOM AND WAR/DANCE 66-6
-WASTE LAND: PARTICIPATORY ART AND SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION 66-7
-CONCLUSION: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE 66-8
History of Anthropology - Ethnicity, Race, Gender by Gelya Frank
Disability by Gelya Frank
spectrum disorder (ASD) to contribute to thinking about occupational justice. In this ethnographic study of six Latino families
of children with ASD in Los Angeles County, all families were offered ABA for their children, but five families experienced
occupational challenges leading them to insist on modifications of ABA or to opt out of the service. We consider in each case
(a) how the families’ experiences can be understood occupationally, (b) how ABA affected the functionings and capabilities
of the children and their families, and (c) how the parents’ accounts relate to occupational justice. Applying the capabilities
approach can help operationalize the concept of occupational justice as a tool to evaluate social policy across cases.
Bioethics - Ethnicity & End of Life Decisions by Gelya Frank
Qualitative Research Methods - Life History by Gelya Frank
by: (1) problematic situations; (2) meaningful and purposeful action; (3) embodied practices; (4) narrative structure; (5) creative transformations; (6) voluntary engagement; and (7) hopeful experimentalism. We apply the theory of occupational reconstructions here
to large-scale situations of political activism in the American civil rights movement and the South African struggle against apartheid. The authors suggest that occupational reconstructions offer a distinctive theory of social transformation that can help occupational science and occupational therapy engage in both mass movements and more local situations relating to human rights and social justice.
global conversation about justice with a wider audience
of future occupational therapy practitioners?
How can we support the integration of emerging ideas
about occupational justice and collective occupations
into new forms of occupational therapy practice? . . . In my own thinking, collective occupations are closely tied
to ‘occupational reconstructions’, a kind of problem
solving that becomes evident when people organize
themselves to make social change.
Chapter outline:
-TEACHING ABOUT COLLECTIVE OCCUPATIONS:
USING VISUAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET 66-2
-TEACHING STUDENTS TO USE AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-VIEWING MAD HOT BALLROOM WITH AN OCCUPATIONAL LENS 66-3
-COMPARING PROBLEMATIC SITUATIONS IN MAD HOT BALLROOM AND WAR/DANCE 66-6
-WASTE LAND: PARTICIPATORY ART AND SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION 66-7
-CONCLUSION: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE 66-8
spectrum disorder (ASD) to contribute to thinking about occupational justice. In this ethnographic study of six Latino families
of children with ASD in Los Angeles County, all families were offered ABA for their children, but five families experienced
occupational challenges leading them to insist on modifications of ABA or to opt out of the service. We consider in each case
(a) how the families’ experiences can be understood occupationally, (b) how ABA affected the functionings and capabilities
of the children and their families, and (c) how the parents’ accounts relate to occupational justice. Applying the capabilities
approach can help operationalize the concept of occupational justice as a tool to evaluate social policy across cases.