An Actor in One´s Own Professional Trajectory?

Abstract

Over the last few years, I have worked to develop individuals’ analytical and reflexive abilitiesregarding modes for regulating firms undergoing processes of transformation. I have done this throughgroups organized to analyze practices as well as through individual and group interviews. My thesiscenters around the notion that today, in the current world, individuals experience a sort of vertigo ordisorientation which sends them out on a perpetual search for points of reference, resources andnetworks. What is disturbing in this specific case is that the trajectories of firms and individuals canunfold in a parallel manner, that is, move in the same direction for a period of time and then suddenlybecome antagonistic. . Thus, professional trajectories are no longer as upwardly spiraling andforeseeable as they once were. Each person must therefore engage in reflexive efforts and analyzethe contexts in which he or she evolves in the building of his/her professional trajectory, with heavyconsequences at stake. To be an actor in one´s own trajectory is imperative both in firms and insociety today and can not be understood in any isolated manner. Rather, it is a process that involvesnumerous questions and requires specific conditions if it is to evolve. After examining some introductoryissues linked to this theme, I present the types of individual professional trajectories that I haveobserved in these times of crises, carrying out a final reflection on the challenges that this theoreticaland practical work present to Sociology.