Weavings between cartography and occupational therapy: experiences and fabulations

Abstract

Research methodologies are influenced by hierarchical power structures that shape the means, discourses, and knowledge involved, with varying degrees of control. As researchers in occupational therapy, these considerations have prompted us to reflect on how we experience and understand research and knowledge construction through the lens of human activities and ethical-political stances. In this paper, we advocate for cartography as a qualitative research-intervention method that emphasizes the embodiment of the researcher within the research process. We aim to showcase distinct approaches to exploring the connection between cartography and occupational therapy, emphasizing the dynamic movements and emergent phenomena within these processes. Our discussion is framed around two key acts of storytelling: 1) Ethical-methodological considerations in engaging with cartographic insights through experimentation, interpretation, and innovation; and 2) Emergent challenges in occupational therapy that inform the development of specific perspectives and methodologies. Through these fabulations, we reveal a sensitive-critical dimension that interweaves lived experience and (r)existence/resistance in the production of contextually situated and socially engaged knowledge, wherein the human activity of researching is embedded in feeling-doing-thinking-being a researcher.