Abstract
This chapter sets out to first define career guidance, looking briefly at its “scientific” origins at the turn of the twentieth century in an effort to match personal traits and labor market requirements, a goal that has been pursued since the times of the classical Greek philosophers. It documents the increasing policy attention to career guidance worldwide, triggered by a series of reviews that involved more than 55 high- and middle-income countries. The chapter shows how such policy “busyness” has informed current iterations of career guidance, giving rise to a lifelong paradigm in response to the expected transition to a knowledge-based economy. Frequent and swift technological changes, it has been argued, require flexible, adaptable workers who are ready to train and re-train in order to maintain their use-value in an unstable labor market. The chapter argues that at the level of pragmatic support to individuals and groups, career guidance informed by liberal ideas has a role to play in serving both the private and the public good. It is however also argued that such a liberal model does not adequately take into account the systemic and structural nature of the problems of capitalism, and ends up responsibilizing individuals, letting the state off the hook and to default on its social contract with its citizens. The chapter concludes by demonstrating the need for more emancipatory forms of career guidance, which bring together the insights generated by vocational psychology with the more structural considerations afforded by social science.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization: The human consequences. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Bauman, Z. (2006). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. New Delhi, India: Sage.
Beck, U. (2006). Living in the world risk society. Economy and Society, 35(3), 329–345.
Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization: Institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. London, England: Sage.
Crouch, C. (2011). The strange non-death of neoliberalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
De Sousa Santos, B. (2005). The future of the world social forum: The work of translation. Development, 48(2), 15–22.
Dinerstein, A. C. (2014). The dream of dignified work: On good and bad utopias. Development and Change, 45, 1037–1058.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hooley, T., Sultana, R. G., & Thomsen, R. (Eds.). (2018). Career guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London, England: Routledge.
Hooley, T., Sultana, R. G., & Thomsen, R. (Eds.). (2019). Career guidance for emancipation: Reclaiming justice for the multitude. London, England: Routledge.
Hughes, D. (2010). Social mobility of young people and adults in England: The contribution and impact of high-quality careers services. Careers England. London: Careers England.
Jessop, B. (2002). Globalization and the national state. In S. Aronowitz & P. Bratsis (Eds.), Paradigm lost: State theory reconsidered (pp. 185–220). Minneapolis, IN: University of Minnesota Press.
Kinsella, E. A., & Pitman, A. (Eds.). (2012). Phronesis as professional knowledge. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Lash, S. (2003). Reflexivity as non-linearity. Theory, Culture and Society, 20(2), 49–57.
Marcus, H. R., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41(9), 954–969.
Marx, K. (1835). Reflections of a young man on the choice of a profession. In Marx and Engels collected works, volume 1. First published in Archiv für die Geschischte de Sozialismus und der Arebiterbewegung, 1925.
Mayston, D. (2002). Evaluating the benefits of career guidance. Derby, UK: Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
McLaren, P. (1991). Critical pedagogy: Constructing an arch of social dreaming and a doorway to hope. Journal of Education, 173(1), 9–34.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2004). Career guidance and public policy: Bridging the gap. Paris, France: Author.
Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
Plant, P. (2008). On the shop floor: Guidance in the workplace. In J. A. Athanasou & R. van Esbroeck (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 265–270). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Prideaux, L.-A., Creed, P. A., Muller, J., & Patton, W. (2000). A review of career interventions from an educational perspective: Have investigations shed any light? Swiss Journal of Psychology, 59(4), 227–239.
Rose, N. (2007). The politics of life itself: Biomedicine, power and subjectivity in the twenty-first century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ruitenberg, C., & Vokey, D. (2011). Equality and justice. In The Sage handbook of philosophy of education. Sage Publications on line.
Savickas, M. L. (2008). Helping people choose jobs: A history of the guidance profession. In J. A. Athanasou & R. Van Esbroeck (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 97–113). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Sciarra, S. (2008). Is flexicurity a European policy? (Working paper no. 4). Turin, Italy: Unità di Ricerca sulla Governance Europea (URGE).
Shamir, R. (2008). The age of responsibilization: On market-embedded morality. Economy and Society, 37(1), 1–19.
Standing, G. (2011). The precariat. The new dangerous class. London, England: Bloomsbury.
Standing, G. (2012). The precariat: From denizens to citizens? Polity, 44(4), 588–608.
Strange, S. (1997). Casino capitalism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Sultana, R. G. (2010). Career guidance and social inclusion: A challenge for Europe. Australian Journal of Career Development, 19(1), 18–23.
Sultana, R. G. (2011). Lifelong guidance, citizen rights and the state: Reclaiming the social contract. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 39(2), 179–186.
Sultana, R. G. (2012a). Learning career management skills in Europe: A critical review. Journal of Education and Work, 25, 225–248.
Sultana, R. G. (2012b). Flexibility and security? The implications of ‘flexicurity’ for career guidance. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 45(2), 145–163.
Sultana, R. G. (2014). Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will? Troubling the relationship between career guidance and social justice. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 14, 5–19.
Sultana, R. G., & Watts, A. G. (2006). Career guidance in public employment services across Europe. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 6(1), 29–46.
Viebrock, E., & Clasen, J. (2009). Flexicurity – A state-of-the-art review. Working papers on the reconciliation of work and welfare in Europe, REC-WP 01/2009.
Vigoda, E. (2003). New public management. In J. Rabin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy (Vol. 2, pp. 812–816). New York, NY: Marcel Dekker.
Vondracek, F. W., & Porfeli, E. J. (2008). Social contexts for career guidance throughout the world. Developmental-contextual perspectives on career across the lifespan. In J. A. Athanasou & R. van Esbroeck (Eds.), International handbook of career guidance (pp. 209–226). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Watts, A. G. (2014). Cross-national reviews of career guidance systems: Overview and reflections. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 32, 4–14.
Watts, A. G., & Sultana, R. G. (2004). Career guidance policies in 37 countries: Contrasts and common themes. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 4(2–3), 105–122.
Willis, P. (1978). Learning to labour: How working-class kids get working class jobs. London, England: Routledge.
Wright, E. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. New York, NY: Verso.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Sultana, R.G. (2022). Lifelong Career Guidance: Between Autonomy and Solidarity. In: Evans, K., Lee, W.O., Markowitsch, J., Zukas, M. (eds) Third International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67930-9_22-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67930-9_22-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67930-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67930-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education