Sustaining the self: Implications for the development of career practitioners' professional identity

Increasing interest by national and international agencies affects the environnnent careerpractitioners work in. Market-driven systems, deregulation and technological innovationchange how people access services. This article examines some of the implications ofthese aspects on how career practitioners build their occupational identity, finding tensionsexist between top-down professionalising actions such as building professional bodies toconsolidate a fragmented occupation and the grassroots feelings practitioners have abouttheir occupational identity. My focus is on how career practitioners in Aotearoa NewZealand, construct their occupational identity. I find the work of Michel Foucault and JudithButler helps me to understand the discomfort many experience. My findings, with whichothers may identify, are that such discomfort about occupational identity inhibits a coherentpush for professionalisation.