How theatre actors in Flanders make sense of and enact their employability in a context in motion: a matter of fit

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand how individuals give meaning to and enact their employability in a changing context. Our study draws on insights from the Social Chronology Framework. In doing so, it involves the interplay of three perspectives: individual, context and time. We used a narrative approach based on life story data from 24 theatre actors in Flanders (Belgium). We identified five narratives based on three building blocks: employability scripts, career imagination and action. Employability scripts encrypt what is contextually required to be employable. The narratives differ in how individuals interpret those scripts, make meaning of their position in the field (career imagination) and act. The narratives express variations in fit with the field. Three narratives express fit: Individuals blend in with the context and endorse the current employability script. A fourth narrative expresses being out-of-fit: Individuals identify with older scripts. A fifth narrative expresses misfit: Individuals fail to act according to the current script and disengage. Our main contributions are theoretical. First, we conceptualize employability “in the fit” and not in the individual. Second, we advance the notion of employability script. Both these contributions serve to understand employability at the interplay of agency and structure.