Careership: a sociological theory of career decision making
Abstract
In the current discourse on the transition from school to work, career decision‐making has a pivotal but paradoxical position. Sociological literature emphasises the dominance of socially‐structured pathways, whilst policy‐making operates on assumptions of individual freedom to choose. In this paper we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to present a new model of career decision‐making, given the shorthand title of ‘careership’. There are three completely integrated dimensions to the model. These are (i) pragmatically rational decision‐making, located in the habitus of the person making the decision; (ii) the interactions with others in the (youth training) field, related to the unequal resources different ‘players’ possess; and (iii) the location of decisions within the partly unpredictable pattern of turning‐points and routines that make up the life course. This model avoids the twin pitfalls of implicit social determinism or of seeing (young) people as completely free agents.
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Career decisions are influenced by a combination of subjective personal choices within social and cultural contexts and objective factors like available educational tracks and socio-economic constraints.
“This supports the Careership theory by Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997), which suggests that career decisions are influenced by a combination of subjective personal choices within social and cultural contexts and objective factors like the available educational tracks and socio-economic constraints.”
From Career Guidance Advocacy Program and The Grade 10 Completers’ Career Choice (2024) · cites this paper as Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997)
Cites
Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x018001032 · Cited by 13,645 · see citing works
Denzin, N. (1989) · doi:10.4135/9781412984584 · Cited by 1,947 · see citing works
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Dougherty, K. J. (2024) · Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education · doi:10.1177/01614681241240287 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Career Guidance Advocacy Program and The Grade 10 Completers’ Career Choice
Maestrado, J. T., & Bucar, J. D. (2024) · International Journal of Multidisciplinary Applied Business and Education Research · doi:10.11594/ijmaber.05.02.12 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hodkinson, P., & Sparkes, A. C.
- Affiliations
- Manchester Metropolitan University (GB)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- ORCID
- Sparkes, Andrew C.
- Venue
- British Journal of Sociology of Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1997-01
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 29-44
- ISSN
- 0142-5692 (ISSN-L)
- 1465-3346
- OpenAlex
- W2167059247
- Cited by
- 706
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 20.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Sociology of Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Education, sociology, and vocational training
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
- Keywords
- career choice, school-to-work transition, Pierre Bourdieu, habitus, youth training, social determinism, individual choice, life course, turning points, educational inequality
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