Career Coupling: Career Making in the Elite World of Musicians and Scientists

Izabela Wagner

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.2.3.06

Authors

Izabela Wagner EHESS Paris, GETI – Université Paris VIII, France

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.2.3.06

Keywords:

Career, Professional strategies, Socialisation, Education of elites, Higher education

Abstract

This article analyzes the interaction between the careers of people working in artistic and intellectual worlds. Two ethnographic studies constitute the basis for the analysis of career building in connection with the careers of other actors. The concept of career coupling represents the process by which professional success is achieved through the forging of relationships between novice and elite actors. Career coupling in the social world of virtuoso musicians is compared to that of career coupling in the social world of elite scientists. It was found that both groups achieve status in a similar fashion by moving through a three-stage process: (1) matching; (2) active collaboration; and, (3) passive collaboration. It is argued that the analysis of career coupling developed here can also be transferred to other professional fields.

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Author Biography

Izabela Wagner, EHESS Paris, GETI – Université Paris VIII, France

Izabela Wagner (PhD) is a researcher in the GETI laboratory in Paris 8 University. She is also a member of the Centre of French Civilisation at University of Warsaw. Her areas of research are the career, elite socialisation, higher education, functioning of occupational milieu, and international professional culture. The researches concern particularly two occupational groups: virtuosos musicians and researchers in life-sciences disciplines. The field of these studies is situated in different countries in UE (France, Poland, Germany, Spain) and in the USA or Canada.

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