Dear Colleagues,

Career research, with a history of around one hundred years, is hardly manageable, even if some key questions and topics can be identified (Moore et al., 2007). Social, economic and technological trends such as advancing globalisation, changing forms of employment, digitalisation and the subjectivisation of work mean that careers can no longer be adequately understood as a sequence of activities in an organisation (cf. Sullivan & Baruch, 2009, (Gunz & Mayrhofer, 2018). In any case, the career does not exist. The above trends lead to different career types (cf. e.g. Arthur, 1994; Briscoe et al., 2006), career paths and their inherent logic, in which contextual factors play a significant role. Empirically, however, traditional careers continue to play a decisive role (cf. Hall & Las Heras, 2009). 

The Social Chronology Framework (Gunz & Mayrhofer, 2018) provides a framework for orientation with its focus on the person or being space and time, although the state of research has the following blind spots (cf. Latzke et al. 2019).  

•    On the one hand, careers take place in a historical and cultural context; on the other hand, the focus is often predominantly on white male protagonists with university degrees.
•    Although careers are a result of the individual life course and socio-historical interaction, the focus is on the action of the individual.
•    A progression aspect is inherent in the career concept. Nevertheless, longitudinal analyses of both a qualitative and quantitative nature tend to be the exception.

The seminar and the accompanying special issue aim to contribute to career research, focussing on the following topics and research gaps: 

•    Empirical evidence: There is a tension between the theoretical discussion on the one hand and the empirical evidence on the other. How do conceptualisations of career and career success prove themselves empirically in a comparison of countries and over time (cf. 5C; e.g. Briscoe et al., 2021)?
•    Career patterns today as fancy concepts - Career research offers a colourful bouquet of career models. Some of the career concepts are outdated. Can successors be identified?
•    Unusual target groups: Careers are usually considered for office managers (white collar) or academics. What do careers, career organisation and career conditions look like for target groups that are rarely considered (e.g. blue collar, employees with disabilities, etc.)?
•    How does digital change affect the careers and career management of organisations and individuals (e.g. through platforms or AI)?
•    Unusual methods and data approaches: From both a theoretical and empirical perspective, the dynamics of career patterns present a challenge. This brings longitudinal analyses to the fore. Social network data also offers new possibilities.

Dennis Heinrich, Wenzel Matiaske, Florian Schramm, Simon Jebsen 
Guest Editors