The Meaning of Everyday Occupation

The Meaning of Everyday Occupation describes the meaning found in the ordinary and familiar occupations that make up our everyday lives. Meaning and everyday occupation are dimensions of living that are of the utmost importance to quality of life for each of us.

This exceptional new text is about occupation as an experience rather than occupation as a task. Occupation as experience is occupation as it is perceived through our senses, as it is lived through, as it is experienced. From an occupational perspective, the occupations of our lives and the meanings of those occupations are essential contributors to the pace and direction of the life flow. Daily occupation is viewed as the essential current that propels each of us along a lifelong journey.

The initial chapters in the text address the concepts of meaningfulness and meaninglessness in our lives as well as meaning and occupation. Cultural contributions to meaningful occupation and the contributions of experiential space and place are discussed. Subsequent chapters focus on the primary ways in which daily occupation contributes to meaning in our lives―as a source of connection to others, as a force for well-being and lifespan development, as a source of meaning in disability, and as a repository of creativity and spirituality.

The Meaning of Everyday Occupation contains many theoretical concepts related to everyday occupational experiences that are interwoven in all chapters. Quotations and stories from the author’s phenomenological research on occupation and from her own life experiences, as well as illustrations from literature are used liberally throughout the book.

Betty Risteen Hasselkus, PhD, OTR, FAOTA is an Emeritus Professor of Kinesiology/Occupational Therapy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she served as program director for 10 years. Prior to her faculty appointment, she earned a bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy, a master of science degree in physical education, and a doctor of philosophy degree at the University of Wisconsin. The hospital where she did much of her training and where she held her first position in occupational therapy is also the building where she was born, where her children were born, and where, ultimately, the academic program of occupational therapy was located during her faculty years.

During her more than 40 years of active participation in the profession of occupational therapy, Dr. Hasselkus has focused her research, teaching, and practice on the everyday occupational experience of people in the community, with a special emphasis on family caregiving for older family members, physician–family caregiver relationships, meanings of everyday occupation to dementia daycare staff, and the meaning of doing occupational therapy. She was elected to the American Occupational Therapy Association Roster of Fellows in 1986 and to the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Academy of Research in 1999. Dr. Hasselkus was the invited Wilma West Lecturer at the University of Southern California in 2003, presenting a lecture entitled, "The Voice of Everyday Occupation." In 2005, she was awarded the AOTA Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship Award—the Association’s highest award for scholarship—and subsequently gave the award lecture in 2006, "The World of Everyday Occupation: Real People, Real Lives."

Dr. Hasselkus was editor of The American Journal of Occupational Therapy from 1998 to 2003. Her international reputation as a scholar has taken her to Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Wales, and Northern Ireland, where she has provided lectures and workshops on qualitative research methods, critical analysis, writing, and qualitative research opportunities in everyday occupation. Her scholarly career includes more than 90 publications in journals and texts.