Career construction and reduction of psychosocial vulnerability: Intercultural career guidance based on Southern epistemologies

Abstract

Latin American theories of career guidance draw heavily on Northern epistemologies, though they articulate with such approaches by taking the context of the global South into consideration. Based on experiences and research conducted in Brazilian public high schools, this article highlights theoretical and practical underpinnings for an approach to intercultural career guidance that addresses psychosocial vulnerability and social unfairness. Inspired by Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s intercultural ideas and by a social constructionist perspective informed by Southern epistemologies, the framework presented in this article expresses a Latin American critical perspective and aims to make a contribution to the social justice agenda, as an alternative to traditional goals of ‘adjusting’ and ‘adapting’ to careers, or ‘educating’ for them.