A new life course model is gaining in importance. This life course model is
de-standardized, biographized and dynamized. De-standardization, for instance,
decouples social roles and life course phases. Biographization stresses biographical
reflexivity, especially in the form of imagining one’s biographical future
and monitoring the fit of this future with one’s own preferences.
Dynamization also prioritizes a constant flow of changes. This article looks at the
cultural and social determinants of this new life course model. It focuses on career
orientations and addresses the role of classic social inequalities as well as work
values and time perceptions. Our pilot study (2002, N 961) reports on the support
for five career anchors (e.g. the Entrepreneur, the Localist) and four career
concepts (e.g. Expert or Transitory) of Dutch young people. It seems that young
people under 30 years of age (as opposed to those over 30) keep their career options
open, do not favour only one specific career anchor, and support a career concept
that reflects dynamic change. Work values hardly and future orientations moderately
influence young people’s career orientations.
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