“Situation of Scissors” as an Institutional Trap of Career Strategies Implementation in Ukraine: Factors of Appearance and Ways of Solving

Abstract

The paper attempts to systematically analyze the phenomenon of the situation of scissors, which exacerbates the institutional imbalance in contemporary Ukrainian society. On a theoretical level, the situation of scissors is presented as an “institutional trap” of the system of higher education and the labor market within the framework of a neo-institutional approach. Using the synthetic theory of the structuration by A. Giddens, the author analyzes the factors of actualization of the “situation of scissors” on the micro, meso- and macro levels of social. At the macro-social level, the normative conflict between the bureaucratically complicated processes of management of higher educational institutions and the normative “freedom” of the labor market development in Ukraine are attributed to the factors of the appearance and constant reproduction of the “situation of scissors.” The mesosocial level it is focused on such factors as actualization of the “situation of scissors”, as the mass orientation of Ukrainian entrants to higher education, and the tendency of increasing the number of private universities. According to the author, the leading factor of the appearance of the “situation of scissors” at the microsocial level is the agent whose career strategy is tied to non-reflexive career archetypes, which greatly complicate the success of his professional self-realization. A conclusion is drawn about the existence of a “scissor situation” over a decade in Ukrainian society. The assumption about the impossibility of completely eliminating the “situation of scissors” in Ukrainian society is expressed. The necessity of simultaneous changes both at the level of practice of individual social actors (destruction of “career archetypes” and modification of career strategies), and at the level of normative regulation of activity of higher education institutes and the labor market in Ukraine is substantiated. The author emphasizes that only a systemic state policy involving many social institutions and changes in representative culture can minimize the negative social consequences of the “situation of scissors.”