Career Guidance and the Arab Mediterranean Countries: Epistemologies and Practices from the Global South

Abstract

This chapter draws on the fund of regional and international knowledge about career guidance that comparative research has generated in contexts that can be referred to as the ‘global South’. The focus here is specifically on the Middle East and North Africa, a region in which the author has carried out research, policy consultancy and practitioner training for the past two decades. The goal of the chapter is to challenge the universalising language that characterises career guidance theory and practice, arguing that serious attention needs to be given to ‘localisms’ and ‘particularisms’ so that responses that are sensitive to context can emerge. The chapter pulls together some of the key themes, issues and insights which, while speaking specifically to the Arab Mediterranean Countries, resonate with what we know about other contexts in the developing world, as well as in the economically depressed regions in the developed world.