The life-design paradigm

1. The life-design paradigm Case Greenland & a selection of key-constructs Lisbeth Højdal www.lisbethhoejdal.dk Lisbeth.hoejdal@email.dk

2. Greenland – figures and facts (2014)

3. National surveys - 2014 • Challenges connected to education • 10-15 % do not complete compulsary education • 62% of youngsters= NEET • High drop-out rates in youth-/higher education • Life experiences - youngsters at prepartory courses • 50% sexually abused during childhood • 24% has experienced other types of violence • 48% has grown up with alcohol/subsistense abuse • Life experiences – adults • 34% females/15% males has experienced sexual assaults • 63% know of a child who has been sexually assaulted

4. Is life a construction? • Each life has become even more of an individual process, still influenced by environmental factor yet constructed to a large extent by the individuals. (Savickas et al. p. 244) Handbook of Life-design: • ....... a model that concentrates on the individuals .. concidered as governers of their work ...and, more generally, of their lives...... (Nota et al. p. 11) • The life course has become a ‘biography of choice’ (Ibid p. 135)

5. Self-governance and individual scripts • Career problems relate to individuals who are • ..dislocated from their current stories.......[need help to] deconstruct, reconstruct ..[in order to].. reinterpretate the past to suit future aspirations (Savickas/Nota et al p. 141 - 142) • Life as self-centered and self-referrent • Individuals are doomed to seek biographical solutions to systemic contradictions...There is no personal strategy that can arrest (let alone prevent) the vagaries of ‘life opportunities’ (Bauman, p 284) • Where does it come from? • It’s never too late to have a happy childhood (Tom Robbins (1980)

6. A self – suited for every occasion? • Human subjects are now seen as less unified.. They are now described as “plural”…(Nota et al. p. 17) • [LD] ..encourages the exploration of possible selves(Savickas et al p. 240) ..individuals identify activities that resonate with their core self (Ibid p. 241) • Theories cast in terms of multiple selves…. • plunges into deep philosophical waters. It requires a regress of selves to a presiding superordinate self that selects and manages the collection of possible selves to suit given purposes. Actually there is only one self. (Bandura, 2000 p. 26)

7. Who’s Greenlander? • Greenlanders are, like all others, a ‘hybrid’ a mixture both ethnically and culturally.....it gives no meaning to speak of Greenlandic culture. (Hardenberg, 2008)

8. Culture= individuals in boxes? Different responces to globalisation • The emergence of different identity forms • Resistance identity: Groups who feel marginalized and devalued by current social conditions. As a result, they try to resist social change. It is the rejected, who rejects the rejectors(Castells, p. 23) • Individuals marginalized by globalisation • Identity politics promotes category-based platforms of ideas, undermining advancement of any universal idea of ‘the good society’. (Bauman, p.7)

9. Are careers constructed? • Core employees • must learn how to make the best investment of their current competencies to adapt….. in order to survive in a boundaryless labor market…… • Peripheral workers • must learn how to cope with multiple transitions … …working lives will unfold (Super)…career decision will be frequent and dictated by their employability….. • Marginalized workers • may encounter additional barriers to and constraints on their employment, sometimes even leading them to concentrate on just day labor” (Savickas et al. 2009 p 242)

10. Adaptability and flexibility • Counselors facilitate …...flexible adaptation ….. ..models are needed that emphasize human flexibility and adaptability(Savickas et al p. 243/240) • Functional flexibility? • Most [workers] .. never had control over building a career, so there should be no romanticising some golden age. (Sennett,1998/Standing p. 63)

11. We are allready adapting! • The gospel of flexibility • The precariat is told that it should be in control of his or her destiny, answer to market forces and be infinitely adaptable (Standing , 2014 p. 41) • The Precariat • Working poor – decreasing salaries • Working too little – not enough to make a living (payed by the hour) • Working too much karoshi/Japan ‘Death from overwork’ ‘Worn out’, Brendekilde, 1889

12. Marginalised groups - the precariat • Who’s entering the precariat? • Youngsters and young adults (regardless of educational level) • Persons above the age of 50, and migrants • Can be virtually everyone! • What do they have in common • Frustration, dissatisfaction – anger! • If we don’t pay attention? • Many will be attracted to populist politicians and neo-fascist messages.... Politics is needed that responds to it’s fears, insecurities and aspirations. (Standing p. 42)

13. References: Bandura, Albert (2000): Self-efficacy. The exercise of Control Bauman, Zygmunt (2002): Society under Siege Castells, Manuel(1997): The Information Age. Economy, Society and Culture. Volume II: The Power of Identity Hardenberg E. Julie (2008): The Quiet Diversity Nota, Laura & Rossier, Jérome (eds) (2015): Handbook of Life Design. From Practice to Theory and From Theory to Practice Savickas, Mark L. et al (2009): Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century Standing, Guy (2014): The Precariate. The new dangerous class Statistics Greenland: Greenland in figures 2016