The Profession as an Individual Life Path Dependency: A Conceptualization of the Category

Abstract

The article considers how categories of path dependency or social inertia are conceptualized within a context of achieving individual self-realization in one’s professional sphere. The study of path-dependency at the macro level already has a long history, if mainly in the field of institutional economy and history. This article shifts the focus to the micro level. Bourdieu’s concept of habits is employed as a convincing theoretical basis for this analytical shift.

The individual’s professional path is under transformation as part of a more general trend toward institutionalization, One result of this is the emergence of the professional path as an element of social structure. On the one hand, it increases vertical occupational mobility within the boundaries of the profession through the accumulation of cultural and social capital, the development of physical and intellectual capability, and by shaping social networks. On the other hand, the professional track deters horizontal mobility between professions.

There are two mechanisms at work in the professional path. Firstly, the key characteristics of the professional space are formalized, which includes delineating the processes of professional specialization and training while regulating, procedures for admission into the profession. The professional path, when seen as a set of opportunities and limitations in the social space, is shaped through a variety of mechanisms such as the labour market, the system of professional education distributing credentials and state regulation. The micro element of the social space is represented by the professional status position. Secondly, the professional path is internalized as a collection of specialized individual intellectual and physical abilities, knowledge and skills, habits and attitudes. As a result the professional track becomes a prolonged in time prescribed status internalized on the level of mind and body. Some abilities are acquired through professional experience and repetition, while others skills that are not in demand tend to disappear.

This modernist logic of professional path reproduction is still in operation. It is reproduced through mechanisms behind institutionalization of professional fields and personal habitualization. However, within the rather fluid conditions of the current period, there are also tendencies that move in a different direction. This includes the increasingly instability of the once stable and rigid structure of the professions of former times, which can be seen as a result of lagging behind the actual needs of the labour market, which, in turn, leads to the deformalization of the professions. Furthermore, a new type of personality is emerging in response to the dynamics of current conditions. What makes it new is its rejection of the rigid logic behind the professional path.