Creativity in Occupation - Reflections on Contemporary Knowledge Development in an Occupational Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and reflect on contemporary understandings of occupation. The field of creativity in occupation will serve as example for this discussion. Although creative occupations are identified as important in human life, especially with regard to making meaning and integral to basic processes of adaptation and health throughout the life span, empirical and theoretical foundations for the understanding of creativity in an occupational perspective is limited. Three studies on creativity for people with life-threatening illness will serve as empirical material for the present paper. The results of these studies indicated that participation in so called creative occupations or rather occupations that allow for qualities of creativity enable the creation of connections to life, while living in proximity to death. Creativity in form of craft activities in therapy was identified to hold two distinct functions: Fostering aspects of health in illness and facilitating the co-existence and integration of the destructive aspects of lives as seriously ill with the positive, constructive and generative potentials of creativity. Qualities of creativity in everyday life were identified both in specific activities and in re-composing new patterns of activity. These findings contrast to earlier research with people in similar situations linking result to diagnoses and thus resulting in knowledge related to symptoms such as pain or fatigue. It could be argued that this divergent result is linked to the different positions taken in the research. Thus, considering how different positions direct research, this presentation raise attention and discusses how conceptual understandings of occupation are developed and how occupational perspectives can substantiate understandings of creativity