Open AccessMaking Sense of Our Working Lives: The concept of the career imagination
Author(s) -
Laurie Cohen,
Joanne Duberley
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
organization theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2631-7877
DOI - 10.1177/26317877211004600
Subject(s) - nexus (standard) , agency (philosophy) , power (physics) , sociology , contingency , identity (music) , situated , legitimacy , epistemology , social psychology , psychology , aesthetics , social science , politics , political science , computer science , law , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , embedded system
This essay considers how the traditional concept of career retains its power in an age of contingency, short-termism and gig work. To answer this question, it introduces and explicates the concept of the ‘career imagination’. This concept has three key dimensions: perceptions of enablement and constraint, time and identity. Situated in the nexus of structure and agency, it is through our career imagination that we envisage and evaluate the progress of our working lives. Encapsulating continuity and change, our career imagination helps us to understand the enduring legitimacy of the traditional career as a yardstick by which to measure success, and the emergence of new possibilities.