Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable career development represents a new interdisciplinary research area in the field of psychology, counseling and career guidance. A sustainable career includes sufficient economic security, matching the individual’s career with their values, adapting to the evolving changes of individuals’ needs and interests, and renewal opportunities (McDonald and Hite, 2018). Linked to the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development (Di Fabio, 2017), it also emphasizes the need to support people to become experts in being flexible and adaptable, considering multiple career transitions and rapid societal changes (Newman, 2001). Sustainable careers consist of a set of opportunities for integration across individuals’ life spheres and experiences that create a sense of wholeness, completeness and meaning. This approach denotes the sequences of individuals’ different career experiences, reflected through a variety of patterns of continuity over time, crossing several social spaces they live in, and characterized by individual agency, herewith providing meaning to the individual (Van der Heijden and De Vos, 2015).

Sustainable career development is linked to people’s education, occupation or position and organizations, without, however, excluding anyone that could be supportive in the counselling process, by highlighting a primary prevention perspective (Di Fabio & Tsuda, 2018). This perspective refers to the promotion of an individual’s optimal response in their interaction with the environment by building and utilizing personal resources and forces that are useful for their personal and career development (Argyropoulou, Mouratoglou, Mikedaki and Charokopaki, 2020).

From a psychological perspective, sustainable career development attempts to contribute to individuals’ sustainability and sustainable development by facilitating their flourishing, in terms of not only interpersonal but also intrapersonal talents, for the benefit of the local community and broader societal progress (Di Fabio and Rosen, 2018; Lenart, 2016). In the context of career counseling and guidance, sustainable career development encourages the development of an appropriate framework, in which individuals may integrate issues that they are unaware of until today in their career decision-making; such issues may include a reflective process, self-knowledge and environmental awareness, social responsibility, career management skills and the balance between their life and career roles (Argyropoulou et al., 2020). In terms of the social environment, sustainable career development could respond to diversity and individual differences, reducing the range of systemic barriers to accessing the labor market and empowering people with the right resources to contribute effectively in the work context (Blustein et al., 2018).

This Special Issue is focused on the contribution that sustainable career development may add to the broader theme of sustainability and sustainable development, as manifested during psychological, counseling and social interventions. Hence, the aim of the present issue is to explore the topic of sustainable career development in relation to psychological, counseling and social implications. The Special Issue will seek to collect and present innovative theoretical contributions, practical reflections for practitioners and the results of empirical research on this topic.

Dr. Alexandros-Stamatios Antoniou
Dr. Katerina Argyropoulou
Dr. Nikos Drosos
Guests Editors

References:

Argyropoulou, K., Mouratoglou, N., Antoniou, A.-S., Mikedaki, K. & Charokopaki, A. (2020). promoting career counselors’ sustainable career development through the group-based life construction dialogue intervention: “Constructing my future purposeful life”. Sustainability, 12, 3645. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12093645

Argyropoulou, K., Mouratoglou, N., Mikedaki, K., Kaliris, A., & Papatheodorou, S. (2020). Training career counselors in contemporary narrative approaches: concerns and future directions. Proceedings of the 43rd IAEVG International Conference. Bratislava, Slovakia, 11-13 September, 2020.

Blustein, D. L. (2011). A relational theory of working. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 1-17. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.10.004

Cardoso, P., Savickas, M.L., & Gonçalves, M.M. (2019). Innovative moments in career construction counseling: Proposal for an integrative model. The Career Development Quarterly, 67, 188-204. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1002/cdq.12190

De Vos, A., Dujardin, J. M., Gielens, T., Meyers, C. (2016). Developing sustainable careers across the lifespan. European social fund network on career and AGE (Age, Generations, Experience). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1007/978-3-319-47741-1

De Vos, A., Van der Heijden, B. I. J. M., & Akkermans, J. (2020). Sustainable careers: Towards a conceptual model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 117 (103196). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.06.011

Di Fabio A. (2017). Positive Healthy Organizations: Promoting Well-Being, Meaningfulness, and Sustainability in Organizations. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1938. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01938

Di Fabio, A. (2017). The Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development for well-being in organizations. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1534. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01534

Di Fabio, A., & Kenny, M. E. (2016). From decent work to decent lives: Positive self and relational management (PS & RM) in the Twenty-First Century. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 361. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00361

Di Fabio, A., & Rosen, M. A. (2018). Opening the black box of psychological processes in the science of sustainable development: A new frontier. European Journal of Sustainable Development Research, 2, 47. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.20897/ejosdr/3933

Di Fabio, A., & Tsuda, A. (2018). The psychology of harmony and harmonization: Advancing the perspectives for the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. Sustainability, 10, 4726. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su10124726

Guichard, J. (2003). Career counseling for human development: An international perspective. Career Development Quarterly, 51, 306-321. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00612.x

Lenart, J. (2016). Sustainable growth and decent work as central ideas of career counseling and life design in an international debate: For a new semio-technique of counseling. Journal of Counsellogy, 5, 271-286.

McDonald, K. S., & Hite, L. M. (2018). Conceptualizing and creating sustainable careers. Human Resources Development Review, 17, 349-372. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1177%2F1534484318796318

Savickas, M. L., Laura, N., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J. P., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., Van Vianen, A. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 239-250. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004

Van der Heijden, B., & De Vos, A. (2015). Sustainable careers: Introductory chapter. In A. De Vos, & B. Van der Heijden (Eds), Handbook of research on sustainable careers (pp. 1-19). Cheltehnam, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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• psychological interventions
• counselling and guidance implications
• global trends
• social groups and societal changes
• personal and career development
• career education
• career decision-making
• social interventions
• life-design and career- and self-management models
• psychology of sustainable development
• psychology of harmonization