Truths established in the career path: an analysis of innovation professionals' discursive practices of self
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8077.2025.e98122Keywords:
innovation professionals, career, truth, true love, Foucauldian Discourse AnalysisAbstract
Purpose: Based on Foucauldian Theory, the study analyzes how the career trajectories of innovation professionals reveal discursive practices of themselves.
Methodology: Fourteen narrative interviews were conducted with creative economy and information and communication technology professionals from different locations in Brazil, scrutinized through the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis.
Originality/Relevance: The research starts from the understanding that the processes of subjectivation are evident in the career trajectory of the innovation professional, assuming that the subject's truths are linked, to a certain degree, to the truths of the professional activity and can be accessed through discursive productions of the professionals.
Main results: The findings show two discursive formations: professional aleturgy and professional love. The first one explores the process of subjectivation marked by the adoption of career truths by the professional, elucidating a movement of capture and alignment between career and subject truths. Professional love, on the other hand, shows an economic, affective bond and a regime of practices for a “beautiful” execution of the profession.
Theoretical/methodological contributions: The research contributes to understanding careers based on the narratives and trajectories of professionals, proposing a perspective based on subjectivation practices.
Social/managerial contributions: The study highlights subjectivation processes that allows to understand changes in the profile of the type of professional investigated.
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