Thank you to WG1 communications volunteer Evrim for writing a series of four blog posts around the working group 1 scientific meeting held in Porto in May. Evrim Erol, PhD, Research Scientist, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Kütahya Dumlupınar University, Türkiye, evrim.erol@dpu.edu.tr
Is a career only about paid work?
Do we still think of a career as a straight line from education to work and from work to promotion? COCAG’s second international conference, held in Porto on 6–7 May 2026, revisited this familiar narrative through discussions of changing working conditions, insecurity, artificial intelligence and social justice. Held as part of COST Action CA23112, the conference took place in a hybrid format under WG1’s leadership.
On the first day, Alexander Nunn’s keynote, “Challenging the Idea of Career and Paid Employment in the Changing Global Economy”, examined the consequences of limiting our understanding of careers to paid employment. He connected shifts in the global economy with climate change, inequality, migration and geopolitical tensions. Drawing on feminist theories of social reproduction, he asked how paid and unpaid labour featured in career narratives. The following day, José Soeiro’s talk, “Work Is No Longer What It Never Was”, focused on what had changed in working life and what had endured. Soeiro spoke about the organisation of work, worker representation and the struggle for decent work. Across the first day’s sessions, speakers challenged the idea of career as an individual journey. Anna Bilon-Piórko linked career learning with sustainable development; Sanna Toiviainen discussed the possibilities of utopian pedagogies in career guidance. Fiona Christie focused on reflexivity and critical consciousness in critical career studies. João Vasco Coelho, Seyithan Demirdağ, Ricky Gee and Fırat Ünsal considered careers in relation to uncertainty, crisis and emancipation. The discussion continued in a session on artificial intelligence. Bilal Çankır examined the effects of career development systems on working life. Tom Staunton addressed the ideological foundations of artificial intelligence, while Nadia Molek explored digitalised academic working life. Donovan Barba-Reynoso discussed vocational assessment methods used in a work-and-study programme in Mexico; Julie Sikin Bhanji Jynge addressed the relationship between public services and social justice.
The second day brought inclusion and workers’ rights into focus. Kim Allen presented on students’ employment rights. Keren Coney considered transformative pedagogy in career services; Lea Ferrari examined the resources and constraints shaping disabled adults’ career experiences; and Michèle Kehoe explored the transition from education to work for people with intellectual disabilities. Taísa Oliveira discussed the potential of participatory research with young people for knowledge justice. Sessions on career pathways and policy brought together Emma Lennox, Ana Tomovska Misoska, Judit Végh, Emilda Roseni, Kübra Yenel, Ferid Azemi, Theo Zacharis, Yi Wang and Nuala Whelan, who discussed how different institutional and social conditions shape careers. Nunn’s question about whether careers could be limited to paid work and Soeiro’s reflections on change in working life echoed through the conference. Another question was how career guidance could support people as they adapted to working life and open discussion about the conditions shaping it.
Recordings of all presentations and discussions can be viewed via COCAG’s YouTube playlist
The conference’s social programme also engaged directly with Porto. Dinner on the first evening was held at Torreão, which employs people at risk of social exclusion. On the second day, participants joined The Worst Tours for a two-hour tour exploring social and political debates around urban development.
