The reach of occupational therapy in local development

Introduction: The questions of local life comprise a scheme of meanings produced daily and are taken by socio-economic processes that produce vulnerabilities as threats to the cohesion of networks of participation. Projects in Local Development can facilitate participatory engagements that take into account the collaboration between civil society and public power to address these issues. Objective: Analyse the scope of the occupational therapy in the orientation of projects and actions in Local Development. Method: This is a qualitative documentary research in which documents produced from a university extension project between January 2011 and July 2015, in the municipality of Itapeva, state of Sao Paulo, and content analysis procedures were discussed. Results: A sociohistorical matrix was extracted that comprised four large dimensions of knowledge in occupational therapy: daily, human activities, mediation skills, and collective life projects, all operated by the teaching methodology in participatory local development. Conclusion: Occupational therapy can directly reach the structures and political functions for Local Development, through processes that take into account the construction of networks of actions that mobilize the participatory engagement of local agents. These processes are based on the foundations of occupational therapy, demonstrating contributions to new research and assistance insertions.