Lifelong guidance, citizen rights and the state : reclaiming the social contract

Abstract

This paper argues that the current articulation of the lifelong career guidance

paradigm stands in danger of uncritically reflecting core agendas underpinning

neo-liberalism as well as New Public Management principles. It highlights

the distinctions that ought to be drawn between seeing the user of career

guidance services as a ‘customer’, ‘client’ or ‘user’ on the one hand, and as a

‘citizen’ on the other, and claims that the political philosophy informing these

terms reveals fundamental tensions that need to be addressed in the formulation

of public policy in relation to guidance. The paper concludes by re-calling the

notion of a ‘social contract’ between the state and the citizen, which is

particularly appropriate in a historical conjuncture marked by insecurity, and

which would infuse lifelong guidance with the critical edge that it urgently

requires.