Participation and agency for persons with disability

This program focuses on how participation can be enabled for persons living with chronic conditions.

The overall ambition is to expand theory on participation in everyday occupations in relation to conceptualizations of creativity, agency and social environment. Participation is presented as a goal for health care as well as a right for the individual regardless functional status. Still knowledge about how to enable participation for persons with chronic disease is limited. Within this project we address this shortcoming by exploring the central concepts of participation, creativity, agency and social environment. The underlying framework for this study is based on perspectives on occupation.

The project involves several studies involving persons living with different conditions such as dementia, schizophrenia, frailty and stroke. Further all studies involve the social environment. The studies are performed in different cultures (Sweden, Norway, Japan & Canada) making cross-cultural comparison possible.

Methodologically, our group has a particular interest in and commitment to participant methodology and action research. We also have a strong focus on narrative theory, method and practice and novice methodology such as Photo-Voice. Our ambition is to be situated in borderlands between individual focus, social relations, ideology, culture, and practices of care and rehabilitation.

The program is collaboration between Karolinska institutet and Luleå Technical University and collaborates with Mc Gill University in Montreal, Wayne State University in Detroit and Trondheim University College.

08-11-2023