Past meanings and future horizons of work mobility: Implications for Canadians and occupational science

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis lectureship explores how futures research might be used by occupational scientists to open up a dialogue about what people ‘will do’. Futures research offers alternative ways to explore ideas, viewpoints, schools of inquiry and knowledge that might contribute to the prevention of known, yet unsolved, occupational injustices experienced by groups of people in society. One such global injustice is the burgeoning work disparity of under- and unemployment experienced by young people. The goal of futures research methods is to create transformative spaces for thought, through multiple ways of knowing and analysis across paradigms of knowledge, to inform what groups of people or populations might do differently to achieve a better quality of life or circumstances. In this lectureship, the future of employment for young people in Canada is used as an example to introduce the potential of using Causal Layered Analysis (CLA; Inayatullah, 1998, 2004), a futures research method, in transformative thinking and inquiry into future possibilities for complex social or health issues relevant to occupational science. In general, futures research methods have a focus on the past and present. Understanding the past is explored through the meanings of work mobility, as represented in the lyrics of Canadian songs (n=183) from the early 1800s to 2014. The current challenges of work mobility, the present for young people in Canada, is explored through a learning experience of a graduate student in applying transformative thinking methods using CLA. Alternative opportunities generated through identification of a preferred future offered up insights that can be leveraged for action or policy change. The preferred future narrative may be valuable when coupled with other knowledge to support and sustain future work transitions of young Canadians navigating the contemporary world of work. For occupational science, transformative thinking can uncover new understandings about how social problems at the population level come to be and then to generate scenarios that evoke new ways or potential for doing that make ethical, empathic and human occupational sense in Canadian society.