Paradigm and Promise: Life Design, Psychology of Working, and Decent Work

The 21st century has brought with it considerable change in the world of work across the globe. Recent events within professional organizations and the professional literature related to career development and counseling signal interesting opportunities to address the topic of decent work. The arrival of the Psychology of Working Theory along with other theories in recent years answers Savickas’s call for the renovation and reinvigoration of the study of careers. Scholarly efforts in advancing the paradigm of Life Design and those, more recently, to address the topic of Decent Work show promise for a new direction in theory and practice of career development and counseling. The authors identify two specific pieces of the Life Design paradigm they feel may prove useful in advancing career development and career counseling toward emerging horizons.