Understanding Careers

Understanding Careers: The Metaphors of Working Lives uses a unique framework of nine archetypal metaphors to encapsulate the field of career studies. Using an easy-to-read style, author Kerr Inkson examines key concepts, illustrating them with over 50 authentic career cases, to build an excellent bridge between theory and “real life.”

In the hotly anticipated second edition of Understanding Careers, Kerr Inkson has teamed up with Nicky Dries and John Arnold to take readers on a fascinating journey through the field of Career Studies. Interdisciplinary – the text brings together and critiques a range of perspectives, allowing for a broader and more holistic understanding of the field. Theory and practice – comprehensive coverage of all the key theories and cutting edge research is related to the real world through over 50 cases studies. A new ‘Careers in Practice’ section contains chapters devoted to self-development, career counselling, and organizational practices. International perspective – contains examples, cases, research, references and statistics from a range of countries. Use of metaphor – the text is structured around commonly used metaphors for careers, helping students relate to the ideas presented and providing a framework for analysis and comparison. Ideal reading for students considering their own career and personal development, as well as those studying career development, career guidance or human resource management within a psychology, education, counselling or business degree.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. This fascinating book comprises case studies of careers from 24 countries across the globe, highlighting culture-specific career issues, and encouraging reflection on one’s own career. Interwoven with current theoretical and empirical insights from career studies, it emphasises the importance of our respective contextual settings.

This book explores the criminal justice career landscape by providing a glimpse into the different careers and advice on how to prepare to enter those career fields.

Understanding Careers: The Metaphors of Working Lives uses a unique framework of nine archetypal metaphors to encapsulate the field of career studies. Using an easy-to-read style, author Kerr Inkson examines key concepts, illustrating them with over 50 authentic career cases, to build an excellent bridge between theory and "real life."

This book explores the criminal justice career landscape by providing a glimpse into the different careers and advice on how to prepare to enter those career fields.

The study of criminal careers is of increasing interest in criminology. It is now generally recognised that it is important to try to understand criminal behaviour across the life-course rather than focusing on fragmented incidents which provide only a partial picture. This is an accessible text which clarifies the crucial theoretical and methodological debates surrounding the study of criminal careers. It focuses on some major longitudinal studies discussing the onset, persistence, desistance and the duration of a criminal career. The important topics of prediction, risk and specialisation are addressed. The challenging question of 'When do ex-offenders become like non-offenders?' points a way forward. The book concludes by proposing an even more ambitious approach to the topic of criminal careers.

From bestselling writer David Graeber—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).