Elisa Thevenot

PhD Project (2020-2024)
Working Out Sustainability in Transition – Empirical reconstruction of work life trajectories within the sustainability context

How do individuals make sense of the ecological transition through work? How through biographical narratives is the ecological transition related to life courses, embedded in personal stories and used to explain life course transitions? Exploring the concept of sustainability from a subject level perspective opens up many questions about: subjectivation processes, learning processes and micro social practices in the context of the ecological transition.

For this qualitative research project, biographical work-life narratives were conducted with individuals contemplating a reorientation of their professional activities in accordance with their understanding of the ecological transition. The analysis using a Documentary Method approach consisted in reconstructing implicit meaning given to career transition experiences and how it informs contemporary approaches to doing sustainability through work. 

Research interests

Transition and Life Course research, Adult Education Biographical and Life-long Learning, Sustainability studies, Practice Theory, Qualitative Methodologies

PUBLICATIONS

Thevenot, E. & Hof, C. (2024). Den Widersprüchen einen Sinn geben: Biografisches Lernen berufstätiger Erwachsener im Kontext der Anforderung von Nachhaltigkeit. Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung. H.3

Thevenot, Elisa (2022). Quand le développement durable devient un projet professionnel : reconstruction des pratiques d’acteurs abordant la transition écologique par le travail, in Special Issue : Le Monde du travail face aux défis de la transition écologique, IRT Aix Marseille, Chroniques du Travail, 12, 175-197.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (LATEST)

03/2024 “Life Course and Transitions” in the ESREA STREAM Network research Symposium “Spaces and Times of Transitions”. Online. Recording: www.youtube.com/channel/UCXAsOkeInX4OQdzWhOjoTcA

09/2023 “Time to combine work and sustainability: learning to accommodate rhythms.” presentation for the event ‘Adult Learning at the Nexus of Life Course, Work & Transitions’, Goethe University Frankfurt (https://adult-learning.de/)

08/2023 “When sustainability becomes something professional: Diverse ways of learning between Work & Sustainable Development” in symposium with Stephen Billet ‘Understanding Transitions to and Through Working Life: Concepts, Methods and Procedural Imperatives’ at the ECER, Glasgow

07/2023 « Conjuguer travail et développement durable : « bifurquer » pour réagencer les rythmes qui structurent les parcours de vie », presentation in the RT38 Sociologie de l’environnement et des risques, Congrès AFS, Lyon

05/2023 “Emerging Transitions in the context of sustainability”, presentation in the panel ‘Emerging transitions in and out of work in contemporary social change’, for the Doing Transitions International conference, Frankfurt

04/2023 “Life Course transitions in the midst of sustainability: theoretical and methodological reflections”, presentation for the conference: “Neue (theoretische) Entwicklungen in der Übergangsforschung – Deutsch Schweizer Perspektiven”, St. Gallen

TEACHING (CURRENT)

W-Semester 24/25 – Seminar: „Polycrisis: a new buzzword and its significance for sustainability“. (in German) Studium Oecologicum Programme. University of Tübingen

W-Semester 24/25 – Seminar “How to think of sustainability and school together?” (in German). Teacher Education. Goethe University Frankfurt

W-Semester 24/25 – Contact person for inquiries about qualitative methods at the PH Karlsruhe and Qualitative research lab instructor for:
(1) Qualitative Method Research labs: Collecting data I: Ready to collect interview data?; (2) Collecting data II: Beyond interviews, (3) Analyzing data I: which method of analysis is suitable for my data?, (4) Analyzing data II: using qualitative content analysis (QIA).