well-founded whole to serve as a basis for further refinements,
extensions, and revisions” (pp. vii–viii). A coherent narrative is
one in which there is a sequence or temporal ordering of events that
makes sense to the person. However, coherence does not precede
other dimensions of the narrative; it is constructed simultaneously
with them. In the construction of career narratives, people fre-
quently use continuity and causality as criteria for the judgment of
adequacy (Linde). The narrator seeks to provide good reasons for
what has happened in her or his life. Among the acceptable reasons
recognized in our society from which individuals and groups can
draw in their construction of career narratives are those related to
ability, personality, socioeconomic class, and economic conditions.
Goals and intentions, constructed through social discourse, also
serve to establish coherence.
We identified narrative as an important feature of interpretation
in some earlier works (Collin & Young, 1992; Young & Valach,
1996); others have considered narrative as central to meaning and
interpretation as well. Sarbin (1992) suggests that narrative is equiv-
alent to Pepper’s “historic act” (Pepper, 1942) as the appropriate root
metaphor for contextualism. Hermans (1992) equates the contex-
tual and the narrative metamodels of development, and Savickas
(2001) includes narrative as one level of a comprehensive theory of
career development. Narrative is also seen as pivotal in construing
and communicating among people (Bruner, 1986; Polkinghorne,
1988; Sarbin, 1986).
Young and Valach (1996) identify a number of features of narra-
tive relevant to career and action. First, narrative can create co-
herence and continuity out of separate, unrelated actions. It serves to
construct and enable intentional, goal-directed action. Second, nar-
rative provides a guide for action (Sarbin, 1992). The overall story or
narrative supplies a framework within which to understand the par-
ticular and act in the present. In this way, career is constructed and
the future of the career is suggested. Finally, as Shotter (1993) points
out, we do not live wholly in narratives. The action-theoretical
explanation addressed in this chapter underlines the fact that people
are required to take action in their daily lives that is both practical
220 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT