Is work a life project for young people?

Abstract

In the context of long-standing macro-structural transformations and of their impact on how individuals - young or not - relate themselves to work and to their professional future in capitalist societies, this article analyses how young undergraduate students of the middle classes in Rio de Janeiro, respond to the societal demand of becoming professionally active and productive. It also focuses on the conditions which allow for the construction of a professional future. A methodological paradigm of action-research was used, whose empirical approach involved an intervention project in which these young people studying at two different universities were invited to discuss their professional project in a discipline oriented towards this aim. Among the results of the project could be found changes concerning the construction of a professional future based on principles such as, rationalization, anticipation and modeling. It was observed that the professional project begins to make sense once it is understood as a form of construction, interlocution and representation of the objectives and desires of the individuals, a process that leads them to revisit and examine their possibilities and limitations, as well as their subjective position in life. Alongside this examination, young people's uncertainties concerning macro productive mechanisms and outcomes can be understood as a source of help to position them in the overall productive conjuncture, rather than something to be corrected or eliminated.