‘Daring Leaps’ Construction of Meaning and Individual Agency in Career Change Narratives in the Media

Abstract

The role of individual agency in crafting meaningful work has attracted increasing interest in recent studies of careers and working life. The purpose of this paper is to make visible the role of the media in reproducing and shaping understandings of careers and agency. By analyzing narratives of career change in the Finnish media, we identify three types of narrative and show how they construct meaningful careers by juxtaposing the past and present work in terms of setting, status, meaning, pace, and workload. Overall, these narratives depict a shift from traditional careers toward work that is concrete, meaningful, of lower status, and less hectic. Moreover, the narratives represent career changers as self-reliant heroes taking “daring leaps.” Hence, we argue that the media reproduces individualistic assumptions of careers and reinforces the dominant, neoliberal ideal of self-responsible, autonomous subjects. We conclude by calling for alternative narratives that recognize the need for more meaningful careers but help strengthen agency in a less individualistic fashion.

Professional Agency, Identity, and Emotions While Leaving One’s Work Organization

“…practices (practices that comprise work tasks, activities, and ways of working) and organizational structures change (Kira & Balkin, 2014;LaPointe & Heilmann, 2014). All these aspects challenge professionals to reach sustainable decisions concerning their work, identity, and career.…”

The Career Human Agency Theory

“…With greater responsibility, there is also greater possibility for constructing meaningful careers and to creatively refine and redefine meaning. A career theory centered on career agency that captures the iterative and complex ways agency is constructed, realized, reformed, and enacted can point to useful counseling research and interventions that promote agency in today’s world of work (LaPointe & Heilmann, 2014).…”

“…Savickas (1993) described the postmodern era as a series of shifts in culture and thinking—from objectivity to perspectivity, from positivism to interpretivism, from a segregated model of organizing internal feelings and external facts to an interactional perspective, and from universal truth to understanding truth “as a socially constructed version of reality” (p. 208). Unpacking these terms, a postmodern approach to career counseling is socially conscious and context driven; it accounts for diversity in experiences, cultures, knowledge, power, and processes while using language as the medium to construct meaning and to synthesize these different domains into a coherent self and identity (LaPointe & Heilmann, 2014; Maree, Ebersöhn, & Vermaak, 2008; Thorngen & Feit, 2001). Nestled within postmodernism is constructivism, which is a holistic approach that emphasizes the self‐organizing principles underlying human experiences, such as meaning‐making, language, narrative, and power (Hoskin, 1995; Young & Collin, 2004).…”

“…With greater responsibility, there is also greater possibility for constructing meaningful careers and to creatively refine and redefine meaning. A career theory centered on career agency that captures the iterative and complex ways agency is constructed, realized, reformed, and enacted can point to useful counseling research and interventions that promote agency in today's world of work (LaPointe & Heilmann, 2014). Savickas (1993) described the postmodern era as a series of shifts in culture and thinking-from objectivity to perspectivity, from positivism to interpretivism, from a segregated model of organizing internal feelings and external facts to an interactional perspective, and from universal truth to understanding truth "as a socially constructed version of reality" (p. 208).…”

Impact Of Social Media Advertising On High Energy Drink Preferences And Consumption

“…The concept of agency is heavily contested in mainstream literature (see Vallacher & Wegner, 1989;Archer 2000, World Bank, 2012LaPointe and Heilmann, 2014). The World Bank (2012:150) defines agency as an individual's (or group's) ability to use their endowments and take advantage of economic opportunities availed to them."…”