Employability: Ideology, Policy, and Practice (Research in the Sociology of Work #37)

Employability has become an increasingly widespread concept both in management and policy, but its meaning remains somewhat enigmatic and ambiguous. This volume offers a much-needed critical analysis of the ideology, practices, and policies of employability, reflecting significant transformations in the world of work and the individualizing experience of contemporary labour markets. This volume draws on a wide range of empirical studies to examine how discourses of employability have impacted both individuals and institutions.

Employability is often framed as an attribute of a person whereby individuals are lauded as “employable” or dismissed as “unemployable.” This language and logic of employability has spawned all kinds of myopic supply-side labour market policies coinciding with and giving fuel to neoliberal emphases on individual responsibility and commodification. The chapters in this volume employ diverse theoretical perspectives on the impact of employability across different empirical settings, including higher education, vocational training, and state policymaking, in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, and Brazil.

Arguing that employability has an elusive character that renders it in dire need of sustained, critical analysis, Employability provides a much-needed framework for thinking about the enigma of employability and for critically reappraising its consequences.