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Journal of Occupational Science

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The interconnected meanings of occupation:

The call, being‐with, possibilities
a b c
Kirk Reed , Clare Hocking & Liz Smythe
a
Department of Occupational Science and Therapy , Auckland University of
Technology , Auckland , New Zealand E-mail:
b
Department of Occupational Science and Therapy , Auckland University of
Technology , Auckland , New Zealand
c
School of Health Care Practice , Auckland University of Technology , Auckland ,
New Zealand
Published online: 27 Sep 2011.

To cite this article: Kirk Reed , Clare Hocking & Liz Smythe (2010) The interconnected meanings of
occupation: The call, being‐with, possibilities, Journal of Occupational Science, 17:3, 140-149, DOI:
10.1080/14427591.2010.9686688

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 FEATURE ARTICLE

The Interconnected Meanings of Occupation:

The Call, Being-With, Possibilities

Kirk Reed, While a range of literature has explored the meaning of occupation, the lived experience of occupation
Clare Hocking & has been relatively neglected. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study 12 New Zealand adults who
Liz Smythe had experienced a disruption to their occupations were interviewed, on the assumption that
disruption reveals things that are usually overlooked. The data were analysed by identifying key themes
and engaging in a hermeneutic process informed by the philosophies of Heidegger and Gadamer. The
findings suggest that the meaning of occupation is complex and tends to remain hidden. Three facets
of meaning that work in unison, each interconnected with the other, emerged from analysis; the Call,
Being-with and Possibilities. The findings of this study are considered in relation to selected literature,
to build on current understandings of the meaning of the occupation. While the study is acknowledged
to have limitations in terms of sampling, the findings do have implications for occupational science
which include building on knowledge of the meaning of occupation and considering occupation from a
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context wider than that of the individual.

Key Words: Occupation, Meaning, Hermeneutic phenomenology

Introduction Lane (2004), Shordike and Pierce (2005), and

Kirk Reed, DHSc, MHSc(OT),
DipOT, Department of
Occupational Science and Therapy,
Auckland University of
Technology, Auckland, New
Zealand.
Clare Hocking, PhD,
MHSc(OT), DipOT, Department
of Occupational Science and
Therapy, Auckland University of
Technology, Auckland, New
Zealand.
Liz Smythe, PhD, RGON, RM,
School of Health Care Practice,
Auckland University of
Technology, Auckland, New
Zealand.
Correspondence to:
kirk.reed@aut.ac.nz
© 2010 The Journal of
Occupational Science Incorporated
Journal of Occupational Science
2010, 17(3), pp 140-149.
In everyday life, people engage in occupation
all of the time. Through that engagement, broad
understandings of what is involved in particular
occupations, in that cultural context, are built
up. People recognise what others are doing, by
observing the tasks they perform and the
objects or tools they are using. They ‘know’
what people mean when they say they are going
to ‘cook’ or ‘mow the lawn’. Because occupation
is pervasive, it “can be heard in both the
everyday and the dramatic aspects of our lives –
in the pin cushions and thimbles, while
watering the flowers and while making
cookies… All the days of our lives, occupation
speaks” (Hasselkus, 2002, p. 134). Yet the
meaning of occupation is often unspoken and
this is what creates its complexity. The
unspokenness that lies in the everyday doing of
occupation raises the question of how well the
complex interwoven layers of meaning, which
are ‘different again’ in each new situation,
are understood.
The literature that has explored the meaning of
occupation sketches an obscure relationship
between meaning and occupation. Within
occupational science, only a few have taken up
the challenge of researching the meaning of
occupation, namely Hannam (1997), Hocking,
Wright-St Clair and Bunrayong (2002), Howell
and Pierce (2000), Hull Garci and Mandich
(2005), Leufstadis, Erlandsson, Bjorkman and
Ekland (2008), Scheerer, Cahill, Kirby and
Wright-St Clair, Bunrayong, Vittayakorn,
Rattakorn and Hocking (2004). Those studies
reveal particular instances of meaning and
show that occupations hold rich meanings for
the individuals engaging in them, yet do not
reveal the kinds of meaning occupation holds,
nor what those meanings are in relation to. The
focus of this phenomenological hermeneutic
study is the meaning of occupation. Its purpose
is to uncover the meaning of occupation as
the thing that it is, situated in the world with
others. The aim is to bring to the fore the
meaning of occupation from an ontological
perspective, to open up the meaning of
occupation from the perspective of lived
experience. In order to take a broad
perspective, Sundkvist and Zingmark’s (2003)
definition of occupation as a “conceptual
entity… [which] includes all the things that
people do in their everyday life” (p. 40)
was adopted.
Background to the Study
Meaning considered
Understanding the meaning of occupation
requires a ‘looking back’ to see how the notion
of meaning has come into view and how
meaning and occupation are understood by
various disciplines. From a psychological
perspective, Reker and Wong (1988) proposed
a continuum of contexts in which meaning is
situated. At one end of the continuum there are

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 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
self definitions and at the other end social definitions, where
a person’s sense of meaning depends on various factors such
as the depth and breadth of experience. Additionally, the
dynamic interplay between individuality and conformity is
acknowledged by a psychologist, Berman (1993), as the place
where meaning in life originates. Berman suggested that as life
plays out across the lifespan there is a never-ending search for
uniqueness and self-hood amid the search for community and
belonging. Similarly Bruner (1990), also a psychologist,
considered meaning to be something that is negotiated with
others and passed between them, something which is real, that
people construct in their social world. Bruner also considered
that the meaning of doing, or occupation, is influenced by the
person’s social, historical, and cultural context.
From a philosophical viewpoint informed by Heidegger,
meaning is “that from which something is understandable as
the thing it is” (King, 2001, p. 6). According to Heidegger, a
thing can only be understood in the context of human
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experience and the world in which it belongs. This is perhaps
best explained through an illustration. Consider, for example,
the meaning of an ordinary everyday notion such as
swimming. The meaning of the swim is not in our shared
understanding of the verb ‘to swim’. The meaning of ‘the
swim’ lies in whether you are swimming to win a race, or to
save your life, or to simply have fun. The meaning of the swim
is revealed in its purpose, what you are swimming for, who
you are swimming with, the conditions of the water, the
warmth of the sun. Your swim of today is likely to have a
different meaning to the swim of yesterday. Today your friend
is not with you; the swim has lost some of its pleasure.
Meaning is thus always interpretive and contextual.
Uncovering the meaning of occupation is also difficult
because it is most often taken-for-granted. In Heidegger’s
terms, “the horizon of our world is primarily ‘meaning giving’;
it is a meaning in which we constantly move as a matter of
course, so that it usually remains implicit” (King, 2001, p. 7).
As such, coming to understand the meaning of occupation is
through people’s context, purpose and Being-with in relation
to the world.1 Meaning may be personally and socially derived
from the past, an anticipated future, and from the dynamics of
the present. Further, it draws from individuals’ values and
histories, and may change over time as meaning unfolds.
Discovering meaning
Attempting to understand meaning is essential to clarifying
the true nature of occupation, which is always a composite of
interplaying meanings. Various perspectives have been
proposed. For instance, the notion that the discovery of
meaning is one of the key features of occupation is supported
by Jackson, Carlson, Mandel, Zemke and Clark (1998), who
proposed that “the ability to find meaning through occupation
is a central consideration in people’s lives” (p. 328). Two
mechanisms for finding meaning through occupation have
been proposed; the purpose of engaging in an occupation can
be a source of meaning, but at the same time the purpose can
evolve while engaged in occupation (Nelson, 1987). Meaning
J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
is also linked to occupation because it helps make sense of
chaos (Persson, Erlandsson, Eklund, & Iwarsson, 2001).
Meaning brings understanding, which helps people make
sense of the world and move on. The positive transformative
potential of occupation has also been highlighted, in the sense
that occupation enables humans to develop as individuals and
as members of society (Townsend, 1997). That is, humans are
able to discover meaning; either meaning about themselves or
the meaning an occupation has to them. In so doing
communities develop, and outcomes and products emerge, as
does a sense of worth and usefulness. Spitzer (2003), however,
challenged the assumption that meaning making is a
conscious reasoning and self awareness process, highlighting
that the meaning of occupation is embodied and comes from
the doing. This assertion is consistent with Law’s (2002)
suggestion that the meaning of occupation is influenced by
the balance between the challenge the occupation presents
and the performer’s skills, a sense of choice and control,
and whether the environment facilitates easy attention to
the occupation.
Additionally, the meaning of occupation can be generated
through social structures that establish how much value and
economic status is placed on an occupation and power
relationships that shape how occupations are performed. That
power is often embedded in documents such as job
descriptions, organisational structures, and codes of conduct
(Persson et al., 2001). As these different perspectives suggest,
the process of ascribing meaning to occupation is
multifaceted. However, while it seems that the meaning of
occupation can be generated by the values and worth placed
on it from an external source, such as an organisation, or
internally by engaging in occupation, the research to date has
not made explicit how an individual generates meaning, the
elements of significance, or the process involved in ascribing
meaning to an occupation.
Meaning and identity
Meaning has been linked to identity with the understanding
that individuals’ occupations contribute to their identity via
the groups they identify with, which assign value to those
occupations. Accordingly, individuals’ sense of belonging and
feelings of importance, and the way their identity is perceived
by others, is shaped by how their occupations are seen within
their culture (Magnus, 2001). While those meanings are often
taken for granted, not being able to perform an occupation
changes people’s identity and their self image; the self is
connected to the doing. This relationship between occupation
and identity became evident to Laliberte Rudman, Valiant
Cook and Polatajko (1996) in their study. When healthy
people talked about meaningful occupations, they did not
identify occupations such as cooking or grooming. Rather, the
meaning of these mundane occupations is diminished until a
time when a person is no longer able to accomplish them. This
suggests that there are layers of meaning connected to
occupation; as an occupation is mastered, the nature of its
meaning changes.
141
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
Meaning and tradition
In contrast to Laliberte Rudman et al.’s (1996) study, which
identified that the meaning of mundane occupations is
diminished, the cooking and recipe work undertaken by older
Thai and New Zealand women for Songkran and Christmas
has been found to hold rich meanings (Hocking et al., 2002).
For the Thai women in particular, the food itself held
meanings “related to the physical shape of the food or the way
that the ingredients blend together” (p. 120), imparting a long
life and unity on those who share the food, wrapping them
into a network of family, friendship and spiritual
relationships. For the New Zealand women, meaning resided
in the food practices, as “they subtly include traditions from
their own childhood, recipes handed down to them or
accessed from old recipe books, and objects that symbolise
personal or family history. In this way, they continue or
institute traditions within their own family” (p. 121). The
Thai women bring people together in a network through food.
For the New Zealand women, the meaning of the occupation
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lies in the connections to past, present and future. For both
groups, the occupation is a vehicle that holds together and
passes on important values.
Temporal perspectives on meaning
It has been suggested that in order to understand the value of
occupation, there needs to be time for reflection, where
meaning can be experienced. Without that, occupation lacks
meaning, which can lead to an increase in depressive
symptoms and stress related health problems (Persson &
Erlandsson, 2002). The link between time and meaning is
similarly highlighted in recognising that occupation has
meaning when it is goal focused (Hasselkus, 1989), since
goals reflect hopes or expectations for the future. Equally, the
meaning of occupation is connected to past experiences of
engaging in it, as illustrated in Spitzer’s (2003) study of the
occupations of children with autism and Hocking et al.’s
(2002) study of the meaning of food related occupations to
older women.
Measuring meaning
Some authors, such as Pierce (1998) and Baker, Jacobs and
Tickle-Degnen (2003), have raised the question of how
meaning might be measured. Baker et al. used the Meaning of
Work Survey in an attempt to do this quantitatively, by
measuring work centrality, work beliefs and valued work
outcomes. Their findings suggest that people who have work
as a central role in their lives have better health and that
understanding the meaning of work to workers might be an
important element in developing an understanding of the
links between occupation, meaning and health.
Observing meaning
While acknowledging that “individual meaning and purpose
are subjectively experienced and only signs of subjective
meaning can be observed” (Spitzer, 2003, p. 70), it is possible
that an understanding of “individual occupational meaning
can be understood or at least approached” through
observation (Spitzer, p. 71). One illustration of discerning the
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meaning of occupation by observing people participating in it
involved a small sample of people drinking tea (Hannam,
1997). The meanings of the occupation that were
communicated in observable ways included the reasons for
drinking the tea, their sensory awareness, the objects used,
temporality, social context, and changes in lifestyle.
Market driven meaning
The connection between meaningful occupation and health is
commonly described in a way that likens humans to machines
(Persson & Erlandsson, 2002). That view can be traced back
to Descartes (1596-1650), who suggested that the body works
like a machine. Consequently, people are expected to work
harder, faster and more efficiently, just as machines do; this
leads to an increase in occupational pace and reduced
opportunities to reflect on the meanings occupations hold.
Additionally, because a meaningful life is often associated with
increasing material standards, people’s use of time tends to be
focused on quantity rather than quality. As a result,
occupations are often superficial, as people do not have the
time to reflect on the things they do and to give them true
meaning. In response to such concerns, Townsend (1997)
proposed a shift from the market driven view of occupation to
a focus on its transformative potential. She suggested this shift
might lead to social and economic re-organisation that would
allow individuals to balance their occupations and re-organise
their lives to re-discover meaning.
Taking a Phenomenological View
While researchers have explored the meaning of occupation
from various perspectives, relatively little research has been
undertaken and studies have tended to focus on the meanings
of a specific occupation or aspect of occupation. There have
been no studies that simply asked people what occupation
means in their ordinary, everyday lives. The challenge of such
research is that people are always involved in occupation;
humans cannot not be occupied, for even sitting doing
nothing is to be occupied in the aloneness and stillness of
nothingness. Drawing on Heidegger’s notion that when a
person loses their pocket knife they understand afresh the
meaning of that knife (Gadamer, 1994), this study approached
people who had experienced some sort of disruption to their
normal pattern of occupational engagement anticipating that
they would have a heightened understanding of the meaning
of their occupations. In the context of this study, an
occupational disruption is defined as a temporary or transient
state “that given supportive conditions, resolves itself”
(Whiteford, 2000, p. 201). The disruption experienced by
participants was merely a starting point to conversation, as
these were people who saw afresh the meaning of taken-for-
granted occupations.
Methodology
Hermeneutic phenomenology, the methodology of this study,
is both descriptive and interpretive. It is particularly useful
when wishing to gain a deeper understanding of everyday
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
human experience. The aim of phenomenology, as described
by Heidegger (1927/1962), is to come to an understanding of
the meaning of the nature of Being and to provide an
interpretive description of experience. The meaning, and
indeed the phenomenon, may be hidden in the everydayness
of the experience. Phenomenology seeks to uncover the
phenomenon and allow it to show itself, offering “accounts of
experienced space, body, time and human interactions as we
live them” (van Manen, 1990, p. 184).
Diekelmann (2005) described interpretive thinking as “a
proceeding rather than a procedure” (p. 5). Rather than a set
process, the researcher engages with the text of the
participants, and a process of inquiry emerges. The analysis is
a process of emergent thinking that grows out of the scholarly
activities of reading, thinking and writing that circles and re-
circles moving forward as new understandings emerge
(Smythe, Ironside, Sims, Swenson & Spence, 2008). The
thinking of this study was underpinned by the works of
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Heidegger and Gadamer, and the question that guided it was
‘what is the meaning of occupation?’
Participants
After ethical approval for the study was granted by the
Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee in April
2004, informal professional and personal networks were used
to enlist intermediaries who would identify and approach
individuals who had experienced an occupational disruption
of some kind. The intermediaries were supplied with
information sheets about the study, so that prospective
participants would be given accurate information about the
purpose of the study, what participation would involve, and
the strategies that would be in place to protect participants’
identity. The purposive sampling strategy was effective in
identifying participants whose usual occupations were
disrupted for varying reasons, thus averting the risk that the
meanings uncovered would relate to only specified life
circumstances. All of the people who expressed interest in the
study were selected for inclusion.
The 12 participants represent a range of the adult population
of a large New Zealand city, and ranged in age from 27 to 67.
There were five men and seven women, from diverse
educational and employment backgrounds. No ethnic
minorities were represented. In line with the inclusion
criteria, the participants were able to communicate effectively
in English, and had experienced an occupational disruption
which could have included a change of job, retirement,
or the way in which their occupations were usually carried
out. Experiences following an occupational disruption were
seen as a ‘way in’ to begin the conversations, recognising that
occupation is so much part of everyday life. The disruption
itself was not the issue of concern but was likely to have
brought particular occupations to the fore in the participants’
thinking.
Data collection and analysis
The data for this study were collected by way of a narrative
J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
interview with each participant, which was conducted in a
setting of the participant’s choice and audiotaped. The
interviews were largely unstructured, and opened by asking
participants to describe the kinds of things they had been
doing over the last week to 10 days. Specific information
about the disruption that had occurred was not sought; rather
stories about the everyday occupations that the participant
had engaged in were the focus. As the conversation unfolded,
so too did details of the disruption, however the focus of
the conversation remained on the occupations they chose to
talk about.
The data provided a range of stories that represented a broad
cross section of occupations. Data were handled using a
process similar to that developed by Caelli (2001):
transcribing the audiotape, reading the transcripts, and
reconstructing stories in a chronological and/or logical order
using the participant’s words wherever possible. The
reconstructed stories were returned to the participants for
verification, clarification and, if requested, deletion from the
study. Once participants returned their reconstructed stories,
and the requested modifications were made, each story was
read and re-read, each time asking questions of the stories to
gain greater understanding. Those questions drew on
phenomenological assumptions that meaning shows itself in
everyday experiences, and included: What was the experience
of doing the occupation like? What didn’t happen or who was
missing? What ‘meaning’ showed through the story and what
did it say about what was not said?
Noting down what ‘seemed to matter’ in relation to the
participants’ occupations was the next stage of the process. At
regular intervals, discussions between the three authors
enabled us to share responses and raise questions which
helped identify what had been missed. This in turn led us back
to the data with fresh eyes. Gradually the shift to
interpretation took place, moving away from what was
happening for individual participants to extracting what was
significant in relation to the meaning of occupation across the
various stories. As this process progressed an assortment of
themes began to emerge. A process of ‘mind-mapping’ was
engaged in to clarify these emerging themes, which were in
turn discussed in relation to Heideggerian notions. This
cyclical process assisted with ‘coming to see’ both the themes
and the elements that were connected with a particular theme.
Establishing trustworthiness
Trustworthiness was established based on Annells (1999) four
criteria: Is the research an understandable and appreciable
product? Is the process of inquiry understandable? Is the
research a useful product? and has an appropriate inquiry
approach been used? To ensure that the research is an
understandable and appreciable product, preliminary findings
were presented to occupational therapy and academic
audiences on a variety of occasions. The feedback from these
audiences was reflected on as part of the process of engaging
in the study. Throughout the research it was central to
discover and describe the experiences of the participants and
143
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
in the account of the study direct quotes from participants
have been included and a process of member checking took
place. Annells’ second criteria is concerned with having a
clearly identifiable trail of decisions related to the method that
led to the interpretation. During the process of data analysis
the authors documented reflective decision making
and explicit reasoning that led to the interpretation, thus
outlining a credible, logical and understandable process that
led to the findings. To make sure the research is a useful
product, Annells’ third criterion, the intention was to give
descriptions that others could recognise and through their
interpretation, further understand the phenomenon. To
ensure that our approach to the inquiry was appropriate,
consideration was given to congruency between the research
question, the method used and the philosophical notions that
guided the study.
Findings
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This study revealed that the meaning of occupation lies in the
complex interconnectedness between the person, the world,
and others in the world. Three essential themes emerged: the
call, Being-with and possibilities. Drawing on insights from a
range of the participants’ lived experience, this section will
offer the authors’ interpretations of those experiences, as is the
nature of hermeneutic phenomenology. In addition,
consistent with all phenomenological writings, this account
uses the pronouns ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’ to communicate
phenomenology’s intent to convey something of the essence of
human existence. Each of the three themes is informed by
philosophical underpinnings that expose different aspects of
the meaning of occupation. The findings are in no way a
complete picture, but rather an offering of the insights that
have been gained. While the themes are by necessity presented
in a linear format, they are conceptualised as representing an
inter-connected whole.
The call
In our existence, it is the care and concern that we have for
others or the things in the world that calls us to action. The
call itself is complex and comes from within us or external to
us. From the experience of the participants, it is what they
care about, or what concerns them, that gives their
occupations meaning. The care and concern often puts their
occupations in conflict with one another. Somehow the call is
discerned so that the call that is most pressing is responded to.
The call shows itself in many different ways; as responsibility,
angst, loss or excitement.
In the experience of spending much of her day alone tending
to her extensive garden on a rural property, one of the
participants, BJ, described how this occupation called her:
I’m one of those people that doesn’t finish a job, I wander
through the garden and notice what needs to be done. I
will go out there with a list of about 10 things that I have
noted in my mind from the previous day and I try and get
through my list, but I never do, so the list carries on. I
might start something and get distracted by something
144 J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
else that needs to be done, so I will go and do that and then
come back to what I originally started, but that might not
be until the next day. Really I have created this garden so
that I won’t ever get bored. Now that I don’t have to go to
work I can do the housework when I like and go out into
the garden when I like. I don’t have a rigid structure but I
keep to the habit of going out into the garden every day.
The garden is my passion and my project. I like it looking
nice and I get a certain enjoyment from the plants. At the
weekends my partner is here during the day so there is
another person around and we will go out and do a couple
of things or just communicate because we haven’t seen
each other all week. The weekends are a lot more relaxed
and my partner will have a sleep-in and then we will have
coffee together and decide what it is we are going to do.
In this story the call to occupation shows itself ‘as passion’.
For BJ, a 40 year old retired woman, her passion shows itself
in two ways; the first is her garden and the second is her
relationship. She is able to structure her week as she sees fit.
Not having the restrictions of going to work means that she
can choose how to spend her time and spreads the household
and other tasks through her week. Because her partner is at
home at the weekends she dedicates that time to being with
her. She is her prime concern. Typically she spends her week
days alone, attending to the wide range of tasks that are
necessary to maintain a large garden. It is her concern for her
garden, for it to look nice, that ‘calls’ her to the garden. The
call comes from what she notices needs to be done, which
plant needs to be trimmed or which weed needs to be pulled
out. The call is also from within, her garden is her ‘passion and
her project’. During the week there is little that distracts her
from her project; it is the focus of her attention. The way in
which this participant carries out the occupation of gardening
shows others something about her. She moves from task to
task and there is little pressure on completing what needs
to be done. If a task is not completed it rolls over to the jobs
to be done the next day. She sees the garden as a work in
progress; it does not have an end point and it continues
to evolve.
In contrast, at the weekend she has a fixed amount of time to
spend with her partner. There is an impression that she wants
to make the most of this time together and to create a relaxing
atmosphere which allows her and her partner to come
together. The occupations she engages in at the weekend are
done in negotiation and partnership with the other. They are
not things done for the sake of doing something. They are
done for the sake of Being-with her partner. There is a sense
that she worries about her relationship and in doing so
carefully selects what she and her partner do together to allow
a re-kindling and a re-connection to maintain the being
together. The worry keeps her in touch with the one for whom
she cares and prompts her to create an atmosphere where they
can be together, side-by-side as they make their way forward.
In our dealings with the world, concern shows itself as
“producing something, attending to something and looking
after it, making use of something, giving something up
and letting it go, undertaking, accomplishing, evincing,
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
interrogating, considering, discussing, determining… All
these ways of Being-in have concern as their kind of Being”
(Heidegger, 1927/1962, p. 83). The occupations that we
engage in have care at the heart of them, yet it is in our actions
or activities that concern becomes an outward showing of that
care. The things that matter to us show up through care. It
allows us to see the world and others around us. Responding
to things in the world means that at different times and in
different contexts the call changes.
The meaning of occupation shows itself in what people care
about and what calls them to action. Care calls for engaged
action and attentiveness. Other participants in the study
talked of calls such as: a new baby whose unpredictable need
for attention shut down her mother’s sense of being able to
ring a friend, or go out for a coffee; an on-call midwife who
was called away from social activity to attend to labouring
women; a father who had left the family home but every night
re-experienced the call of not being able to say goodnight to
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his sons. The call, in one form or other, was ever present.
Sometimes it was a burden, a threat, an ache or a joy. Always,
it was the call that coloured the mood.
Being-with
The second theme, Being-with, comes to light as a
fundamental part of being human. From the participants’
stories, occupation done with others gives a sense of
connection and it is through the connection that occupation
comes to have meaning. Occupation performed alone that
would preferably be done with others, becomes a task to be
completed; it is lifeless and empty. It is through occupation
that an avenue to Be-with others is created and meaning is
revealed that is more than the occupation itself. The multitude
of combinations of occupations and who we engage with,
in those occupations, is immense. This in turn influences
the meaning of each and every occupation. Being-with, from
the participants’ experience, shows itself along with other
notions such as intimacy, obligation, sharing an interest, or
being wanted.
The occupation of going for a walk is something that one of
the participants, Lucy, enjoys but it is something she would
rather do with a friend than alone. She described going for
a walk:
I’m not very good at walking on my own, so I go with a
friend, Alison. The two of us just get away. We have
established a little ritual where I drive over to her place
and she makes coffee and scones with cream, so it’s fun. It
was quite an interesting walk in the sense that we were so
busy talking to one another, I wasn’t paying much
attention to the park... with this friend we tend to get into
semi-political conversations about groups of people that
are struggling. With the other friend, Gill, I go walking
with, we are usually more interested in where we are and
saying to each other ‘Oh look at that’ and ‘Listen to the
birds’.
There is a sense that going for walk allows Lucy and her
friend, Alison, to get away. It is in the getting away that they
are escaping together to be without interruption, to be
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together as friends to enjoy their relationship. The being
together through the occupation allows them to establish a
much closer bond. The occupation involves a series of
activities that permits a period of reconnection with each
other through the scones and coffee, a kind of warm up to the
main event. The walk is the occupation that brings the friends
together, yet the enjoyment is that they get lost in the
conversation, turning toward each other in an undistracted
way. The walking itself disappears and is forgotten. The same
occupation is experienced differently depending on who Lucy
is walking with. When she is walking with Gill, she is more
aware of the world around her. Gill shares her interest in birds.
They are each drawn to point out things they notice to each
other, for they know they share an interest. The occupation of
walking has different meanings depending on which friend
she is with. Again the walking is forgotten, but both are
attuned to the sights on the way. They take notice and delight
in sharing moments with each other.
Relationship can dramatically change the experience of ‘being
there’ as the ‘other’ draws out a different ‘self’ and opens
particular interests. As an occupation, a walk is not simply a
walk. Who one walks with gives meaning and significantly
shapes the experience. Other participants told stories of how
others influenced their occupations, such as: the woman who
loved cooking with her flatmate but hated cooking alone; the
man with the injury whose wife now hovered attentively while
he cooked, leaving him feeling both frustrated and cared for;
the father who delighted in helping his son with a paper run
because of the opportunity to relate. People were always at the
heart of occupation, even when, for example, one woman
talked of her delight in hanging out the washing as it was her
time of aloneness, giving her a sacred space where,
paradoxically perhaps, she did not feel lonely at all.
Possibilities
The third theme that emerged from the participants’ stories
points to the meaning of occupation being connected to its
‘possibilities’. As people continue on the journey of who it is
they are becoming, their occupations show others what it is
they are capable of and how they conform or not to what
others dictate is acceptable. It is through occupations that
people become aware of the possibilities that open up to them
and those that close down. Occupation allows individuals to
show themselves as being open to different things, having
stamina or pushing boundaries. The meaning of occupation
also shows itself in the way that occupation connects the past
and present with the future. What we have done in the past
influences what we do now, which in turn will influence what
we do in the future. Each of these experiences will have
meaning connected to it, as people traverse the continuum
of time.
One of the other participants, a transgender person, described
the occupation of going for a walk around her local
neighbourhood:
I live in a small rural community where everybody knows
who I am. I have been very discrete until recently. I would
never go out the front door with a skirt on just in case one
145
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
of the neighbours saw me. Recently I have been out
walking and the last few times I have seen an elderly
couple out walking their dog and we got chatting one day.
They asked me where I lived and I pointed out my house
to them. It was then that they realised who I was… they
didn’t actually recognise me. They thought I was someone
else that they had never met before. I found it quite
amazing because to them I was just another lady walking
down the street.
For Jane the occupation of going for a walk allows her to
understand herself further, as it is in that occupation that she
is able to show herself - as female. In her projection of herself
as female, she is able to take this step of going out into the
local community. The possibility of going for a walk as female
is open for her, but until this time she has not taken up this
possibility. It is in going for a walk that she is able to blend in
and to not be different. In a way she has met the expectations
of what others suppose a female to be. She speaks of her
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amazement at not being seen as different but as just another
person. Her sense is that the elderly couple saw her as “just
another lady”, as no-one special or different but as one of the
crowd. Further, when the difference was revealed, the moment
passed comfortably. Life is always a threefold structure of past,
present, and future. Our future life is always there before us,
and no matter how terrible or optimistic we find it, each
moment has its possibilities of stepping forth differently. As
Harman (2007) stated:
We find ourselves delivered to a situation that must be
dealt with somehow (past). Yet we are not mere slaves
to this situation, since we go to work on our current
situation by glimpsing possibilities in it that we can try
to actualize (future). Finally every moment of factical
life is a profound tension between what is given to us
and how we confront it (present). Life is a kind of
unrest, forever torn between two poles of reality.
(p. 29)
According to Harman, people are constantly moving back and
forth between the old self and the new self, responding to the
possibilities as they arise. In Jane’s experience, going for a
walk reveals the possibility of Being seen as female, thus
giving the occupation of going for a walk meaning as it opens
a different future for her, one where she is accepted by others.
Equally, having the elderly couple recognise her as male shows
that a different future could have been possible.
This story reveals that the meaning of occupation exists in
relation to how self and others respond to the possibilities that
exist. Occupation shows self through the response others relay
back to you. It is the response from them that influences the
opening up or closing down of possibilities. Others in the
world have an idea of how individuals should be, and when
we meet these expectations we are able to do the things that
we want to do unhindered. Revealing self differently creates a
tension between how we would like to be in the future and
how we were in the past. The response, be it positive, negative
or disinterested, opens up new possibilities and re-shapes the
meaning of occupation. Such meanings are never static. We
146 J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
can tire of being-a-certain-way, just as others’ responses can
change over time.
Perhaps most commonly, both self and other take for granted
the nature of the occupations we habitually engage in and we
do not stop to consider brave possibilities of being different.
Nevertheless, thrownness, described by Heidegger as “the way
my world affects me, and I am attached to it before I have
made any decision or choice to be so” (Large, 2008, p. 58),
always has the potential to push people into situations where
there is no choice but to engage in new possibilities of being
occupied. In this study, examples were becoming a mother of
a baby who was constantly in her mind, sustaining an injury
and being unable to walk without crutches, recovering from
brain injury, taking on an on-call job, and becoming
redundant. Each participant experienced the tension of re-
shaping possibilities of going about everyday life. It was in the
re-shaping process that meanings emerged.
Discussion
The findings of this study reveal that the meaning of
occupation is shaped by the dynamic interplay between the
call, Being-with and possibilities. The notion of
interconnectedness is important. While various authors such
as those profiled earlier in this article have identified similar
notions, which resonate with the findings of this study, the
literature does not point to the complex layers of meaning that
are present in the mundane, seldom talked about occupations
of everyday. In returning to the literature, the links between
previous authors’ work and the findings of this study will be
made, drawing out new understandings of the meaning
of occupation.
The call
The meaning of occupation shows itself in the participants’
stories by what it is that matters most. What matters most is
what we care about and what concerns us. This reveals itself
in the occupations we choose or choose not to engage in. The
meaning of occupation is therefore at the heart of who we are.
This is similar to, but not the same as, the findings from
Magnus (2001) who identified that the meaning of occupation
is connected to how occupation is seen in the culture in which
a person belongs. It could be argued that people’s culture is
what determines what it is they should care about or what
concerns them, allowing others to create and associate their
identity by their occupational engagement; therefore, giving a
particular occupation meaning as connected to their culture.
Magnus however did not make this explicit.
Being-with
The theme of Being-with revealed itself in the study by the
dramatic change, depending on who the occupation is done
with. Being-with holds a very significant dimension of
meaning. Each time we engage in an occupation the nature of
Being-with will be different. The absence of particular people
can also positively or negatively impact on meaning.
Occupation acts as the vehicle for the coming together and in
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
the coming together the meaning of occupation shows itself.
The connection between a person’s social, historical and
cultural context is identified by Bruner (1990), who
highlighted that meaning is negotiated with others, passed
down between them and constructed in a social world. More
recently Persson et al. (2001) concluded that meaning is
generated through social organisations, where established
value is placed on occupations. These ideas are similar to the
theme of Being-with, which acknowledges that it is in the
social, historical and cultural context and social organisations
that meaning can arise. However, these authors focus on the
collective generation of meaning rather than on the lived
experience or the importance of the relationships between
individuals in living the meaning embedded in experience,
often in a non-thinking way.
Possibilities
The final theme identified in the study was that of
possibilities. The participants’ stories suggest that occupation
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has meaning because it is through occupation that people
become aware of the opportunities that open up or close down
for them. It is through occupation that we show others what
we are capable of, and there is a constant moving between the
old self and the new self as we continue on the journey of who
it is we are becoming.
The notion of meaning being connected to a journey was
made by Berman (1993), who noted the never ending search
for uniqueness and self, and by Townsend (1997), who
highlighted the positive transformational potential of
occupation. However it should be noted that the findings in
this study showed that the meaning of occupation is related to
both possibilities that open up and those that close down,
thereby indicating that the transformational potential of
occupation might not always be positive. More recently
Spitzer (2003) highlighted the temporal nature of the meaning
of occupation, in that it is connected to past experiences, just
as the theme of possibilities identifies that what a person has
done in the past influences what he or she does now and will
do in the future, which in turn influences the meaning
of occupation.
The inter-connected interplay
What this study reveals is that the meaning of occupation is
shaped by the dynamic interplay between the call, Being-with,
and possibilities. Being-with is connected to the call and to
possibilities in the sense that the call is shaped by what people
care about, which is informed by what they know from society
and others around them. This is turn allows others to respond
to who they are. In the response from others, possibilities can
open up or be closed down, fuelling or damping the call to
an occupation.
Limitations of the study and further research
The meanings uncovered in this study relate to a specific
group of participants and do not, by any means, aim to be
representative, yet perhaps resonate with ‘being human’. It is
particularly important that future research includes
J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
perspectives from young people and older adults, those from
a range of cultural backgrounds and those who engage in
specific occupations, from those who have not had
disruptions, and whose lives are steeped in everydayness.
Additionally, where this study relied on perceptions of
occupation made visible by some disruption to everyday life,
future studies might usefully explore meanings made apparent
by engaging in much practised occupations associated with
enduring life changes such as getting married, or occupations
laden with cultural meaning such as a first communion or a
winning performance at the Olympic Games. There is much
still to be thought about and explored in the quest to
understand everyday occupation.
Implications for occupational science
The findings of this study have implications for occupational
science. While the discipline’s literature has identified the
need to gain further understandings of the meaning of
occupation, studies building on this knowledge are sparse.
This study indicates that even occupations that might be
considered mundane have complex layers of meaning. Until
occupational scientists grasp the nature of these everyday
occupations that lie within the primordial experience of being
human, any discussion of the nature of occupation or its
relationship to well-being will require on-going collective
thinking. This study highlights the complex nature of the
meaning of occupation. Meaning is circumstantial and is
shaped by the dynamics of the interaction and interplay
between people, competing demands and possibilities. This
suggests, as Dickie, Cutchin and Humphry (2006) have
argued, that occupational science may need to move beyond
individualistic understandings of occupation and consider
occupation from a wider perspective.
Conclusion
Current understandings of the meaning of occupation provide
an unclear picture, with few occupational scientists using a
phenomenological approach to explore what occupation
means. This study explored the meaning of occupation from
the perspective of 12 New Zealand adults. The findings
identified three interconnected themes: the call, Being-with
and possibilities. Each of these facets of meaning work in
unison, showing that complex layers of meaning exist, always
in play with each other. It is suggested that further research is
required to consider the meaning of occupation as being
connected to the wider context of the world and others in the
world. Today, being occupied might be about the rain, the
mood, the people around us, the dog, the demands, the food
in the house, the thought of the week to come. Occupations
call us (or not), people come and go, and the possibilities
excite and daunt. Such is the nature of being human, and as
such always being occupied.
End Note
1
Throughout the paper, Being is capitalised to indicate ‘being’ in the
philosophical sense, as the central aspect of who a person is.
147
 KIRK REED, CLARE HOCKING & LIZ SMYTHE
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Redefining Boundaries and Bridges in Occupation

The joint conference of the Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists
and the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA
October 14-16, 2010
in London, Ontario
at the beautiful Ivey Spencer Leadership Conference Centre
Dr. Elizabeth Townsend will be giving the Townsend and Polatajko Lectureship and
Dr. Geyla Frank will be giving the Ruth Zemke Lecture in Occupational Science

A preconference institute featuring Multi-Site Research on Occupation will be held on October 14, 2010
www.sso-usa.org

Canadian Society of
Occupational Scientists

J O U R N A L O F O C C U PAT I O N A L S C I E N C E V O L 1 7 ( 3 ) , A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 149