Social occupational therapy: diversity, culture and knowledge

Abstract

This article is about an historical approach of culture concept in the west (mainly in France, England and Germany) to get into the context of the main discussions that have influenced Brazilian thought and to discuss culture notion as a right as well as UNESCO supports. DISCUSSION: The basis is the comprehension about the difference between societies and cultures. In this sense, the identities coexistence problem, since the differences have had an increasing intensification, needs new ways of working because it demands to learn to coexist and share multiple identities even if they are ambiguous. CONCLUSION: It is demanded from the Occupational Therapist the capacity of building coherent interventions in specific local cultures. In Occupational Therapy, the valorization of diversity means the recognition that there is a differentiated public-target in many ways: 1. In one same culture or sub-culture: age, genre, socialization processes, class, race and language create differentiations that demand method and objectives elaborated. 2. Situations where there are social experiences marked by inequalities or that coexist differentiated socio-cultural practice, It is important to apprehend the game's cultural dynamic, the codes and the symbols that interact or conflict.