Abstract
This dissertation asks the ontological question relating to the very nature of the entity called ‘career’, and the activities that deal with this entity, namely, career guidance and counselling. To answer this question, it will use the hermeneutical phenomenology of Martin Heidegger, a philosophical thinker. Among Heidegger’s typology of entities – physical objects, non-human organisms, human beings, works and spiritual beings – career is identified as a case of work. Building on Heidegger’s notions of ‘Dasein’ and ‘being-in-the-world’, a work is described as a type of entity that opens and sets up a world. As such, it establishes a background against which human understanding and sensemaking becomes possible. In the world of careers, human beings are revealed in terms of ‘tools’ (instruments) or ‘resources’ (raw materials) for use. This understanding endangers the very nature of what it means to be a human being - a world-forming or world-shaping being. Understanding career as a case of work leads back to the very nature of being human. This means that this type of entity can no longer be called a ‘career’, but is called a ‘lifework’, and is the work that attends to this work called ‘stewardship’. Implications for career guidance and counselling practice are discussed.
Prof. F. Crous