This volume addresses a wide range of methodological approaches to the study of career with particular emphasis on alternative approaches. The contributors challenge those who see the traditional positivist empirical methodology as the only appropriate methodology with which to address important career questions and issues, arguing instead that the subject of career can best be studied within a number of disciplines, and using a variety of methodologies. Among the alternative methodologies explored by the contributors and employed in studies reported in this volume are those based on...

This work reports on a range of research studies in the career field that use biographical, narrative, and ecological approaches within an interpretive framework. It responds to the recognized dissonance between career theory and research, on the one part, and practice, on the other. It also responds to the view that in recent years practice has outstripped career theory and research. The qualitative approaches used in the research reported have gained popularity in the social sciences in recent years, but have been largely untried in the career field.

This work offers specific...