emancipatory career guidance
and social justice:
addressing structures of
inequality
Funen, 28 October 2015
Ronald G. Sultana
University of Malta
ronald.sultana@um.edu.mt
http://www.um.edu.mt/emcer
KEY
POINTS
[1] Structures of inequalities
[2] Ideologies of career guidance
[3] Emancipatory guidance in a liquid society
“…man [sic.]
is born free,
BUT
everywhere
he is in
chains.”
AGENCY: capacity of
individuals to act
independently
and to make their own
‘free’ choices.
STRUCTURE: the recurrent patterned arrangements
which influence or limit the choices and
opportunities available
Breaking free…?
The realities of inequality
A set of unequal
relationships to the
‘goodies’ of life
•
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•
•
Power / Influence
Money
Health
Education
Life-chances
Status
Security
Lifestyle
Autonomy
• Self-determination
-
+
Livet skal forstaas baglaens,
men leves forlaens.
“You can’t connect the dots
looking forward;
you can only connect them
looking backwards.”
Steve Jobs
“Life can only be understood backwards
but it must be lived forwards”
Søren Kierkegaard
career guidance as
an intervention
in the
‘normal’ flow of life
experience oppression as normal ‘life’
object or ‘subject’ of one’s life story
reflexive modernity
Anthony Giddens
‘Career’ – ‘management’ :
…Reflexivity
…Option to act differently
…Strategic purposefulness
…‘Subject’ rather than ‘object’ of
history
genetic
Pierre Bourdieu
structuralism
Key paradigms and concepts
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•
•
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•
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Reproduction theories
Structuration theory
Rational choice - Methodological individualism
Human capital theories [vs. ‘opportunity traps’]
Network/social capital theories
Capability approach
Governmentality
Critiques of Neo-Liberalism/NPM
Deskilling/reskilling/decent work
Responsibilisation
Flexicurity
Globalisation/Europeanisation
Willis, Bourdieu, Boudon, Gambetta, Freire,
Roberts, Giddens, Bauman, Sennett, Blau,
Foucault, Sen, Gilligan, Butler, Dale & Robertson…
structure AND agency
The glass ceiling
Career Guidance:
oiling the machine of inequality?
...or...
conscientisation?
The class ceiling
reproductive career guidance
hermeneutic career guidance
emancipatory career guidance
 21.4% of 18-25 year olds
cannot find jobs (1 out of 5)
 In some countries 40-50% of
youths are out of work
 10 million jobs lost since 2008
 2 million unfilled vacancies
 122 million at risk of poverty (1
out of 4)
 Key characteristics of work:
intensification
precarity
short-term
temping,
part-time
non-unionized jobs
- contestatory
- emancipatory
- advocacy
approaches
…
even more
crucial now
Bernadette Segol (ETUC)
‘Liquid’ society
Zygmunt Bauman
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Richard Sennett
Is it meaningful to speak of ‘careers’? [Gallup 2013]
Can work be the locus of personal/social fulfilment?
Growth of part-time, non-unionized, contract work.
Decent work?
Is the notion of ‘arete’ relevant any more?
Security, insecurity, and flexicurity.
22
Ken Roberts (2005)
In which ways
does career guidance
participate in the deployment of
…and
on whose behalf,
towards which
ends?
power…
• Easing transitions
• Facilitating meritocracy
• Equalizing chances for vulnerable groups
• Challenging class, gender, ethnic stereotypes
• Increasing the ‘capacity to aspire’
• Promoting fulfilment at work and beyond
• Shares and mobilizes networks/social capital
• Access to economic capital/educational capital/
• Decoding the world
• Facilitates access to FHE and LLL
• Conscientisation and advocacy
• Collective social action
Agendas for emancipatory CG
• Democratising relevant information
“responsibilisation”