Social practice methodologies for understanding patterns of and within occupation
Date
2025
Authors
Foley, K.
McLean, C.
Olivares-Aising, D.
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Journal article
Citation
Journal of Occupational Science, 2025; 32(3):397-419
Statement of Responsibility
Kristen Foley, Caitlan McLean, Daniela Olivares-Aising
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Abstract
Methodologies capable of exploring the patternings of, and relationalities between, occupations are needed. This paper seeks to illustrate how methodologies extending from theories of social practice can help occupational scientists examine collective dimensions and patterns of occupational in/justice – even through occupations positioned across time and space. We describe key ideas that cohere social practice methodologies: where practices are units of analysis composed of meanings, materials, and competences that are assembled in different configurations, traceable across diverse contexts. We then use two case studies (performing cognitive labour and gendered alcohol marketing) to illustrate how analytical attention to common practice elements between occupations can help to elucidate the various histories and macro contexts in which occupation(s) are enfolded (as ‘patterns’). We use the methodological space opened by social practice approaches to show how gender as a pattern can be ‘traced’ to better understand (collective) opportunities for (gendered) occupational engagement and participation. We unpack how positionality is imbricated with the objects and methods of research and theorisation, and apply this reflexive post-structural feminist consciousness to identify the limitations of our case study examples. Social practice theories resonate with conceptual development in occupational science, which de-centres the individual as a prism for studying occupation. Practice methodologies further open space to analyse the complex and mutually constitutive factors that re/produce occupational engagements, expectations, and repertoires. This is important for an occupational science that seeks to understand collective dimensions of occupation, and how patterns of occupation tangle with (potential for) material and social oppression(s).
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Dissertation Note
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Published online 26 August 2025
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© 2025 The Association for the Journal of Occupational Science Incorporated