The patterns of socio-cultural diversity: dialogues among Occupational Therapy, Africa and Ethnography

Academic research in social occupational therapy has presented an interface with the theme of Africa, from a cultural diversity perspective to emphasize the need to include new forms of research. This study proposes a panorama of the academic research in Brazil in the context of occupational therapy in different interfaces: human mobility, human rights, religiosity, children's cultures, gender, etc. This multiplicity reveals a perspective of appreciation of African themes. In this context, the concept of cultural diversity is presented as a perspective to expand the discussion of new views, decentralization of technical knowledge and new dialogues required for researchers and professionals. It was proposed to think, experience and produce new forms of research, themes and subjects that cover different ways of life, problems and issues that dialogue with the transformations of the contemporary world, which are also implications of social occupational therapy. Moreover, along with the ethnography and its research tools, one can think of multiple, unique and rich ways to do research. These aspects, in the present work, make interconnections with the diverse productions on Africa and occupational therapy, revealing the potentiality of these elements for the profession.