A critical exploration of the “agile career”: a means of exposing the politics and economy of precarity via the lens of dromology

Abstract

ABSTRACT In large aspects of contemporary career discourse, the importance of the “agile career” is asserted, although the speed of change has not been explicitly considered in relation to this concept. The political dimensions of the agile career via the lens of “speed” are explored in this theoretical paper. Particular attention is paid to Virilio’s paradigm of dromology, revealing how social positionality correlates with the distribution of “fear”, as well as resources to cope with the speed of change, thus promoting precarity. The embracement of speed and agility has resulted in a propaganda of progress, where those closer to the primary mode of production benefit over those at the margins, highlighting the tyranny of speed experienced by many within labour market.