To act in front of the stories: Narrative interpretation as a resource to move from what to how

ABSTRACT The focus of this Ruth Zemke lecture is to present and reflect on ways theoretical resources on narrative interpretation are relevant to some of the key tensions and challenges facing the study of human occupation and related practices today; The tensions between an individual and a social framing of human occupation, between a focus on identifying discrete elements of human occupation versus a processual focus on how human occupations unfold and work, and finally the tensions between focusing on success versus acknowledging human vulnerability as resource. Drawing on Ricoeur’s notion of narrative interpretation as a threefold mimetic process involving material, emplotment, and communication, suggestions are offered on how a narrative-in-action approach illuminates how processes of agency and change in people’s human occupation can be shaped and revised.