ABSTRACT
Variants of discourse analysis, alone or in combination with other methodologies, are more frequently being used in occupation-focused research. Although examples of studies cover a range of substantive areas and research purposes, the focus on how discourses – that is, ways of writing and talking about a phenomena – shape possibilities for how groups of people can and do act in the world hold them together as studies employing discourse analysis. For example, Ballinger and Payne (2000b, 2002) combined critical discourse analysis and ethnography to interrogate how risk was understood and enacted in a community day hospital, pointing to how a dominant biomedical discourse on risk minimizes agency for older clients and positions health care professionals as experts. Johansson, Lilja, Park, and Josephsson (2010) combined critical discourse analysis and narrative inquiry to examine interactions between hegemonic organizational discourses and the practices of service providers in home modification services. Using variants of discourse analysis, Kantartzis and Molineux (2012) deconstructed assumptions about occupation that shape occupational science research, and Pereira (2013) interrogated social inclusion policy and its implications for occupations.
