Abstract
What makes an employer decide in a graduate’s favour when applying for a new job? This question is urgent and important for many graduates who are hoping to get the upper hand in competing for their first job, yet research can tell us little about how to answer it. In an effort to inquire into this question, the following chapter outlines an understanding of graduate employability based in workplace practices. Practice theory is an umbrella term for a number of theories and concepts focusing on the importance of activity for understanding the social world. ‘The practice turn’ in social science seeks to bridge some problematic dualisms (such as actor-structure) in other theories. In the version of practice theory that will be presented below, we draw upon the theorisation presented by Theodore Schatzki (2001, 2005) and our previous work within this framework (Lindberg and Rantatalo 2015), in an effort to translate practice-theory concepts into research tools for examining graduate employability.
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Lindberg, O., Rantatalo, O. (2017). Graduate Employability as Social Suitability: Professional Competence from a Practice Theory Perspective. In: Tomlinson, M., Holmes, L. (eds) Graduate Employability in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57168-7_12
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