long term but the short- and midterm as well. For example, project
is increasingly being recognized as a heuristic construct that can be
used to describe various work periods and tasks, which Jones (1996)
did for the film industry, paths for adolescents to adult occupations
(Larson, 2000), and as the basis for vocational identity (Riverin-
Simard, 2000), and for effective functioning (Richardson, 2000).
Clearly, the social basis of career, the conceptualization of the mid-
term in the form of projects, and the attention to change and
change processes increase the value of this explanation to address
career in the information-oriented, technological, global, and net-
worked society of the twenty-first century.
Contextualizing Career Research
Young and Valach (1996) argue that one of the strengths of the
contextualist action approach is the fluid relations among theory,
research, and practice. The principle that underlies this fluidity is
that action, project, and career are everyday concepts that are close
to human experience, not abstracted from it. One of the primary
purposes of career research from a contextualist action theory
approach is to describe career processes more fully. The perspectives
on action, manifest behavior, internal processes, and social mean-
ing are the same perspectives for research access to a single inte-
grated action, a joint project, or a career of one or more persons.
Although other research uses one or more of these perspectives, the
full understanding of action, project, or career requires that all per-
spectives be considered.
Since the initial formulation of this approach (Young & Valach,
1996; Young, Valach, & Collin, 1996), a number of authors have
commented on the need for supporting research (for example,
Brown, 1996b; Niles & Hartung, 2000). We have undertaken a line
of research that examines the actions and projects that occur in
conversations between parents and adolescents and other family
activities that contribute over time in the construction of career
(for example, Young, Valach, Dillabough, Dover, & Matthes, 1994;
A CONTEXTUALIST EXPLANATION OF CAREER 227