Contemporary perspectives of occupational therapy in Latin America: Contributions to the glocal dialogue

Abstract

Background: The contemporary perspectives of occupational therapy in Latin America focus on an epistemic, political, and plural field under construction and in dispute. It is about the notions of knowing and doing designed to appoint the theoretical and methodological aspects that support the reading and intervention of the complex realities.

Purpose: This paper explores a glocal dialogue about the production and dissemination of knowledge in occupational therapy in Latin America.

Key Issues: The dialogue includes issues and trends in the global scientific and social scenario, without neglecting aspects of different local realities around the world. By focusing on the profession in Latin America, using different perspectives, such as Critical Occupational Therapy; Occupational Therapy and Social Issues; Occupational Therapy and Culture; Territory and Community Occupational Therapy; Southern Occupational Therapies; and Occupational Science in Latin America. It further discusses the relationship between the theoretical perspectives and the coloniality of knowledge in occupational therapy and the contradictions based on neoliberal models in the production and dissemination of knowledge.

Conclusion: The hegemonic neoliberal model and the glocalisation theoretical framework appeared to support and circumvent the production of scientific knowledge in occupational therapy, and placed Latin America on the periphery of the global debate.

 

Keywords: professional practice of occupational therapy; theoretical framework, theoretical perspective, coloniality of knowledge, critical occupational therapy, occupational science.