Working Group 2 / 3rd webinar / 14th of April 2026, 1400-1600 CET (Brussles time)

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Welcome to the third webinar of Working Group 2 (critical career development policy) within COST Action CA23112 Critical Perspectives on Career and Career Guidance (COCAG). Our Action aims to rethink the assumptions, power relations, and policy frameworks that shape how careers are imagined, developed, and supported across Europe and beyond. In line with these goals, today’s session brings together five thought‑provoking contributions that critically interrogate the social, political, and ethical dimensions of contemporary career development.

This webinar explores career guidance as a deeply situated practice one shaped by precarity in higher education, tensions between individual and collective needs, the emotional and symbolic regimes that structure career imaginaries, the early formation of aspirations in childhood, and the urgent need for environmentally just career pathways. Our presenters examine how policy frameworks can unintentionally reinforce inequalities, how career concepts may limit rather than expand human potential, and how career guidance/development systems can become tools for social and ecological transformation.

Across today’s presentations, a shared thread emerges: the need to expand our understanding of what a “career” means, for whom it works, and under what social and structural conditions it becomes possible. By engaging with diverse methodologies and critical theories, the speakers invite us to envision policy and practice that support more inclusive, ethical, and sustainable futures.

Dr. Tibor B. Borbély-Pecze & Dr. Petra Elftorp, COCAG WG2 Leaders 

1. Beyond the ‘Invisible’ Academic

Presenter: Nurdan Ödemiş Keleş (Türkiye)

Abstract: Postdoctoral researchers occupy a central yet increasingly precarious position within contemporary global higher education systems, where the rapid expansion of doctoral education over the past two decades has significantly transformed traditional academic career pathways. Despite this growth, early career researchers frequently face short-term contracts, employment uncertainty, and limited institutional support for long-term development. While universities prioritize global rankings and research productivity, institutional career development policies remain fragmented and underdeveloped, often focusing primarily on students while leaving postdoctoral academics outside formal support frameworks. This presentation examines how higher education policies address the specific career needs of researchers through a detailed policy analysis of governance structures and institutional dynamics. By adopting a critical perspective, the study challenges the casualization of academic labour and its impact on social justice within the academy. The analysis highlights three structural tensions: ambiguous institutional positioning, the exclusion of researchers from guidance policies, and intensified labour market inequalities. Furthermore, the research critically evaluates how performance-oriented academic cultures shape and often restrict long-term career opportunities for early-stage academics. Ultimately, the study argues for a fundamental rethinking of career policies to support more inclusive and sustainable pathways for postdoctoral researchers within the broader context of academic precarity.

2. What constitutes a ‘good’ career?

Presenter: Jouke Post (Netherlands)

Abstract: The current labour market crisis, with acute shortages in sectors such as healthcare and technology, is forcing the field of career development to critically re-evaluate the focus on individual self-development in careers.
This presentation highlights the growing tension between “personal fit” (what the individual wants) and “social fit” (what society needs to remain vital), a distinction made by political philosopher Russel Muirhead in his book Just Work (2007). Our freedom of choice might be reaching its limits now that the continuity of essential collective services is under pressure. A critical approach to career guidance recognizes that the field is inherently moral and political, e.g. in the public debate about “essential occupations” versus “bullshit jobs.” From a political perspective, the dominance of (neo)liberalism in the last 80 years has for too long excluded moral discussions about the “common good” from the public domain in favour of individual autonomy. Policymakers now face the fundamental choice of whether and how to limit the freedom of study and career choices to achieve societal goals. There are calls for a vision of “responsive careers”, in which personal meaning and social solidarity are no longer seen as opposites but as reciprocal.
Career professionals can play an active role by challenging clients to broaden their “horizon of meaning” to include the value they want to add to the world. Value-driven career guidance and (policy) instruments such as skills-based matching and targeted labour market information can be used to facilitate the transition to sectors with social shortages. The concept of a “good career” in the 21st century implies a recalibration of our freedom; whereby individual talent is more consciously aligned with collective values and the public good.

3. Sad passions and the career imaginary

Presenter: João Vasco Coelho (Portugal)

Abstract: Contemporary career development policy continues to rely on a symbolic form of “career” grounded in expectations of growth, upward mobility, and predictable progression. From a critical perspective, this model narrows the field of immanent possibilities available to individuals, producing what Spinoza and Deleuze call “sad passions” affects of guilt, inadequacy, and self‑blame when structurally foreclosed futures are presented as matters of personal responsibility. The presentation relates to policy by examining how these inherited assumptions shape guidance practices, eligibility criteria, and intervention designs that implicitly treat autonomy, employability, and self‑management as universal capacities. It also relates to critical perspectives by questioning the taken‑for‑granted status of “career” itself, showing that it is not a natural fact but a socio‑semiotic convention that organizes temporal horizons and expectations of what counts as a viable future. Drawing on immanentist philosophy (Spinoza, Deleuze, Bergson) and Cassirer’s theory of symbolic forms, the analysis shows how policy‑driven temporalities of prediction, control, and anticipation suppress the individuating temporality of becoming. This dissonance between policy assumptions and contemporary socio‑economic conditions marked by precarity and scarcity generates emotional and affective burdens that policy inadvertently reinforces. By reframing career as an immanent field of potentials rather than a linear trajectory, it becomes possible to design policies that expand rather than restrict individuals’ horizons of action. The presentation therefore proposes a conceptual shift from managing trajectories to cultivating conditions for new possibilities to emerge. This approach foregrounds structural constraints, affective life, and symbolic regimes as central to future policy design. It ultimately argues for career development policies capable of supporting plural, situated, and ecologically attuned futures.

4. Early Career Related Learning

Presenter: Aisling Murray Fleming (Ireland)

Abstract: Career development is increasingly understood as a lifelong process that begins in early childhood; however, most policy responses to contemporary career challenges focus on adolescents and adults. This paper argues that addressing labour market uncertainty, skills mismatch and persistent gender stereotyping requires policy attention to Early Career Related Learning (ECRL) within primary education. Drawing on a doctoral study exploring ECRL among children aged five to nine years in Irish primary schools, the research examines how young children engage with ideas about work, identity, and future possibilities. The study adopts a participatory case study design within a naturalistic inquiry framework and includes data from 100 children across three schools alongside surveys and focus groups with parents and teachers. Findings show that most children are already actively engaging in career-related thinking, often linking aspirations to interests and perceived abilities. However, the results also reveal early internalisation of gendered career stereotypes and limited occupational awareness shaped by social and environmental influences. These findings highlight the need for policy interventions that broaden children’s awareness of opportunities and challenge structural inequalities in career development. From a critical perspective, the study questions assumptions that career development begins in adolescence and instead positions childhood as a key stage where social norms and inequalities are reproduced or challenged. The paper therefore proposes policy responses including integrating developmentally appropriate career-related learning within primary education, supporting teachers to embed future-oriented learning, and strengthening collaboration between education systems, families and guidance policy to support equitable career development.

5. Career Guidance as a Tool for Environmental Justice

Presenter: Sakine Sincer (Türkiye / USA)

Abstract: This study examines how career guidance can be reimagined as a policy tool within educational administration to address environmental justice. It argues that traditional career guidance models focused on employability are insufficient for contemporary sustainability challenges. The study integrates sustainability, social justice, and career guidance into a unified policy framework. It highlights the role of educational leadership in embedding environmental justice into institutional strategies and career services. The presentation emphasizes the importance of data-driven and equity-oriented decision-making in career guidance systems. It also explores how unequal access to sustainable career pathways reproduces broader social and environmental inequalities. From a policy perspective, it proposes the integration of sustainability and justice principles into career guidance practices. From a critical perspective, it questions market-driven approaches that prioritize economic outcomes over ethical and societal considerations. The presentation conceptualizes career guidance as a site of power, inequality, and transformation. Overall, it offers a policy- and leadership-oriented approach to advancing equitable and sustainable futures through career guidance.