This Research Handbook provides a novel, integrative approach to the field of vocational behavior. Moving beyond a focus on individual agency, this collection explores how multiple stakeholders and societal and institutional forces shape lives and identities. Leading scholars interrogate the complexities of working life, addressing themes such as changes in contemporary labor markets and radical transformations driven by AI, socio-political shifts, and increasingly volatile and uncertain environmental conditions.

Contributing authors discuss a range of concepts and provocative ideas, and offer guided career practice and interventions. The chapters demonstrate how individuals, organizations, and other stakeholders, including family and friends, can shape vocational behavior and foster or endanger individual career sustainability. Drawing on diverse epistemologies and methodologies, they investigate contemporary challenges, such as work precarity and global migration, through socio-economic, political, and decolonial lenses. The Handbook proposes new research directions that embrace global disruption and a social justice agenda, acting as a reference point for theoretically diverse, relevant, and socially responsible approaches to vocational behavior.

This Research Handbook is an invaluable reference for students and scholars across the social sciences, particularly those seeking multi- and trans-disciplinary perspectives on vocational behavior. It is a must-have for vocational and career psychologists and counselors, HR professionals, and policymakers who want to increase their knowledge of today’s challenges in the world of work and careers.