Abstract
This book explores how individuals experience and negotiate their identity during periods of dramatic career transition. It suggests that, due to alienation, instability and instrumentality, work has ceased to be the central source of meaning and identity in contemporary society. Instead, the very process of self-understanding, self-fulfilment and identity-crafting is becoming a central activity and an end in itself.
The book comprises eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the main argument, maps out the issues around the work–life relationship and identity-making, and outlines the narrative autobiographical analysis methodology. Potter argues that, in order to understand the complex relationship between work and identity-making in contemporary society, it is crucial to understand the lived experiences of how individuals are coping with and negotiating dramatic work–life transitions. Chapter 2 maps out the book’s conceptual framework, arguing that existing sociological studies take a narrow view that productive activity alone is key to the construction of self-identity. Instead, Potter suggests that, in today’s society, work is losing centrality in individuals’ lives and we need to view other ‘meaningful activities, e.g. interpersonal relationships, spiritual involvement, or political participation’ (p. 26) as essential to identity construction. Chapters 3–7 develop this argument through data analysis. Chapter 3 explores how participants negotiated dramatic career moves, for example from business to art, from dentistry to music, from law to sustainable farming. It shows how deviations from the normative idea of a hierarchical and linear career require profound re-negotiations of self-perceptions and self-worth, and how these tensions inevitably play out through personal relationships. In Chapter 4, participants’ stories illustrate further the uncertainty and anxiety around self-understanding in periods of being ‘in between’ careers. Potter suggests that in such situations the meaning and sense of self become linked to the very process of transition, which is interpreted as self-discovery and movement towards a more authentic and complete self. Chapter 5 elaborates on how dramatic work transitions typically originate from a realization of conflict between organizational culture and personal values, and how moving away from an unfulfilling career is conceptualized as a progression towards an authentic self and a rewarding life. However, as explained in Chapter 6, radical work transitions involve trade-offs, sacrifices and re-negotiations of the meanings of career, success and a good life. For instance, the notion of success is re-articulated as a process of self-fulfilment, in contrast to the more traditional understanding of success as economic achievement. Finally, Chapter 7 argues that participants’ career transitions are less about changing work per se, but rather about the process of self-actualization, the ‘inner journey’ (p. 159). However, tensions between the rhetoric and the practical implications of such downshifting continue to pose a challenge to the construction of the self. Chapter 8 concludes that the focus on self-determination and the ‘turn to self’ as a source of meaning is a reaction to the changing nature of the contemporary workplace and argues that it contributes to individualization processes in contemporary western society.
The book brings significant complexity to debates about ‘the end of work’ by offering an in-depth empirical exploration of the construction and challenges of alternative life and work trajectories. Potter highlights that work is losing its centrality to identity construction, while the very process of self-understanding, grounded in interpersonal relationships and spiritual and political activities, is becoming an end in itself – an analysis that reveals the growing individualization of contemporary society. The book also shows the possibilities and constraints of resistance to normativities of contemporary work: while participants demonstrate self-determination in renegotiating social expectations surrounding career and success, their stories expose the difficulties of breaking away from institutional norms, calling into question the supposedly wide prevalence of fluid and boundary-less careers. While Potter’s critique of the work–identity link is insightful, his argument about the importance of the ‘non-productive area’ for self-understanding might have been considerably strengthened had it been situated within recent writing on issues of work–life balance and ‘opting out’ in addition to the traditional sociology of work studies. Moreover, more sustained engagement with the literature on gendered work identity might have helped develop a more thorough critique of the work–identity relationship. Gendered dynamics are mentioned (Chapters 2 and 5) but are not an integral part of the argument, which would have been particularly interesting since the data show how dual-earner, middle-class relationships make it difficult for both men and women to give up traditional careers. Explicating this aspect of how career changes relate to and shape feminine and/or masculine identity negotiations might have enriched the discussion of the intersectional challenges and dynamics of gender and class that the book points towards. Nonetheless, the book’s fascinating insights into how individuals negotiate work transitions will hopefully stimulate more much-needed research on how the contemporary shift in work conditions relates to selfhood.