Relational transitions, emotional decisions: new directions for theorising graduate employment

Finn, K. (2017) Relational transitions, emotional decisions: new directions for theorising graduate employment. Journal of Education and Work, 30(4), pp. 419-431. (doi: 10.1080/13639080.2016.1239348)

Abstract

University-to-work transitions tend to be discussed in terms of skills, outcomes and the readiness of graduates for an increasingly insecure and flexible labour market. Such a focus on individual attributes and orientations depicts graduates as lonely and ostensibly rational figures; disembedded from their intimate networks and devoid of emotional context as they navigate their post-university pathways. This article aims to steer the debate in a new, fundamentally relational direction by exploring the role and significance of intimate kin and non-kin relationships for the ways graduates experience and make choices about employment and careers. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research with women who graduated from universities in the UK between 2009 and 2011, the discussion highlights the value of an explicitly relational perspective for revealing the personal and emotional dimensions of the transition out of higher education. The article concludes that the process of securing work and committing to a career is embedded within the broader experiences of personal life, emotion and (im)mobility and, thus, raises important questions about the role and responsibility of universities at a time when employability metrics are read as a marker of teaching quality.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Finn, Dr Kirsty
• Authors: Finn, K.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Pedagogy Policy and Practice
• Journal Name: Journal of Education and Work
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1363-9080
• ISSN (Online): 1469-9435
• Published Online: 26 October 2016
• First Published: First published in Journal of Education and Work 30(4):419-431
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher