New challenges in the study of career

Abstract

To address the implications for career of today’s changes in the organisation of work and labour markets, managers and counsellors need appropriate concepts, theories and methodologies. Career scholars may no longer be well placed to help. The paper notes how the range of perspectives they bring to their understanding of career fragments the field of study. Moreover, the dominant assumptions and approaches in the field are inappropriate to deal with what is taking place in it, and are being challenged by developments in the “new sciences”. The paper suggests that, to respond to these challenges, career scholars of all kinds need to engage in dialogue as they examine their assumptions and conceptualisations, and develop new research approaches. Practitioners must engage with these changes as researchers, exploring new qualitative methods, and individuals need support from their managers as they construct new identities.