emancipatory career guidance and social justice: addressing
structures of inequality Funen, 28 October 2015 Ronald G. Sultana
University of Malta [1] Structures of inequalities [2] Ideologies
of career guidance [3] Emancipatory guidance in a liquid society
KEY POINTS 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? podemos ! retributive justice getting just
deserts distributive justice equitable access to goodies of life
recognitive justice respecting diversity: rights and needs Nancy
Fraser The realities of inequality A set of unequal relationships
to the goodies of life Power / Influence Money Health Education
Life-chances Status Security Lifestyle Autonomy Self-determination
+ - life trajectories Life can only be understood backwards but it
must be lived forwards Sren Kierkegaard Livet skal forstaas
baglaens, men leves forlaens. You cant connect the dots looking
forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. Steve Jobs
career guidance as an intervention in the normal flow of life
object or subject of ones life story experience oppression as
normal life reflexive modernity genetic structuralism Career
management : Reflexivity Option to act differently Strategic
purposefulness Subject rather than object of history Anthony
Giddens Pierre Bourdieu Key paradigms and concepts 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 Career Guidance: oiling the machine
of inequality?...or... conscientisation? The glass ceiling The
class ceiling reproductive career guidance hermeneutic career
guidance emancipatory career guidance 21.4% of 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 Bernadette Segol (ETUC)
-contestatory -emancipatory -advocacy approaches even more crucial
now Liquid society 22 Zygmunt BaumanRichard 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. Ken Roberts (2005) In
which ways does career guidance participate in the deployment of
power and on whose behalf, towards which ends? Democratising
relevant information 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
responsibilisation
