The role of imagination in emergent career agency

Abstract

Career agency is a vaguely defined concept that is usually explained in terms of cultivating self-reliance, while it is at the same time being critiqued as a difficult to reach goal as a result of societal pressures. Instead of viewing agency through the lens of these opposing viewpoints, focused on people either being self-reliant or determined by outside forces, this article proposes a ‘medial’ perspective on agency. People can be assisted to develop agency when it is conceptualized as an emergent phenomenon that can be fostered through imaginative and playful writing, where individuals are invited to engage in a field where an expansion of both symbolic and material space can be promoted. The dangers of an instrumental focus on career management skills are outlined and the philosophical considerations underlying the idea of imagination as fostering agency are explained.

The Career Human Agency Theory

“…Career agency is a confluence of individual, social, environmental, and contextual factors. It is an iterative, emergent, and dynamic process that extends beyond personal responsibility for one’s own successes and is also exercised within relationships (proxies) and organizational systems and communities (collectives; Bandura, 2006; Muijen, Lengelle, Meijers, & Wardekker, 2018; Roper, Ganesh, & Inkson, 2010).…”