Abstract

Critiques of neoliberal capitalism have offered a rich vocabulary for the analysis of the political economy of literacy across professional, public, and classroom contexts. Since the Great Recession, commonplaces about work-readiness have been conditioned by economic precarity and changes to the social contract of work that blur the lines between professionalization and exploitation. Looking beyond the confines of the neoliberal present, the uncertain future of work for our undergraduate students will be shaped by what the World Economic Forum describes as the “double-disruption” of the pandemic and the rise of automation. Whereas neoliberal critique offers a vocabulary for describing many job seekers’ experience of the present, this article seeks to recover an element of “literacy hope” (Wan) by looking to speculative and utopian postcapitalist theory to inform and challenge career guidance conversations with students in writing studies. By framing the future as a resource in the rhetorical constitution of present-day workers, this article advances an inquiry-focused career-guidance pedagogy that asks: How do our assumptions about the future of work inform our relationships with employers and each other in the present?

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2025-02-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc2025763370
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. College Composition and Communication
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (5)

  1. College English
  2. College Composition and Communication
  3. College Composition and Communication
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. College Composition and Communication
Also cites 12 works outside this index ↓
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  2. The Hidden Inequities in Labor-Based Contract Grading
  3. Accountable to Whom? The Rhetorical Circulation of Neoliberal Discourse and Its Ambient E…
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  4. Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century
  5. The Happenstance Learning Theory
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  6. 99 Theses on the Revaluation of Value: A Postcapitalist Manifesto
  7. Revisiting Keynes: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren
  8. Life Design: A Paradigm for Career Intervention in the 21st Century
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  9. Life Designing: A Paradigm for Career Construction in the 21st Century
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  10. The Challenge of Change: The Transition Model and Its Applications
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  11. Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University
  12. Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times
CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network →