Lifelong guidance, citizen rights and the state: reclaiming the social contract

This paper argues that the current articulation of the lifelong career guidance paradigm stands in danger of uncritically reflecting core agendas underpinning neo-liberalism as well as New Public Management principles. It highlights the distinctions that ought to be drawn between seeing the user of career guidance services as a 'customer', 'client' or 'user' on the one hand, and as a 'citizen' on the other, and claims that the political philosophy informing these terms reveals fundamental tensions that need to be addressed in the formulation of public policy in relation to guidance. The paper concludes by re-calling the notion of a 'social contract' between the state and the citizen, which is particularly appropriate in a historical conjuncture marked by insecurity, and which would infuse lifelong guidance with the critical edge that it urgently requires.