Health through occupation - beyond the evidence

The growing body of scientific knowledge that links health and occupation is gaining in status within the field of science and is increasingly being picked up by policy makers and politicians alike. However, scientific evidence is a relatively new kid on the block in terms of human knowledge. To explore the links between health and occupation more fully we must open our minds to other ways of knowing. Intuition, tacit knowledge, philosophy and indigenous knowledge, amongst others, all have validity in the ways they help us to ‘know’ about the links between health and occupation. This presentation explores ways of knowing beyond science and their contribution to the base of human knowledge about health through occupation. Old knowledge, quotations, songs and lyrics, media knowledge and public domain knowledge are used to explore this wider level of understanding. The presentation concludes that, while scientific knowledge is accepted in Western culture as the knowledge of power, we ignore at our peril other bodies of knowledge, some of which may be rapidly declining, in our quest to understand health through occupatio