Engineering Lifestyles: Career Choices in Late Modernity

Abstract

In many industrialised economies, young people are staying away from traditional technical education and careers in their droves. They appear to engage more readily with creative work, with its image of autonomy, personal responsibility, and self-expression. Using secondary data from youth and educational research, plus primary data from Spanish case studies of technical education, Müller explores the drivers of this disengagement from engineering and engagement with creative work. Media consumption, obstacles to labour market entry, and growing individualism drive young people into constant self-presentation and self-management in their work, political, and consumption roles. Europe’s future engineers may be lost to creative occupations, with much less secure employment prospects.