The Ways of Representation of Individualism in Compulsory Career Planning Courses in Turkiye

OpenAlex İngilizce

This article aims to demonstrate how neoliberal individualist discourse is represented in compulsory Career Planning Courses added to the curriculum of every department in Turkish universities. For this purpose, the course contents are subjected to critical discourse analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was observed that generating career goals, self-development, self-investment, designing oneself as an enterprise, being employed, and being preferred in the market are turned into individual tasks. When reaching career goals is turned into a matter of individual success, unemployment or failure can also be explained through individual deficiencies, instead of individuals’ socioeconomic backgrounds. This also serves to hide the structural problems embedded in neoliberalism. This process, called the institutionalization of individualization, individualizes both existing inequalities and market-based risks.