My Project of Balanced Orientation: Navigating the Fog of Crossed Influences (from my latest research)
In a world where autonomy is touted everywhere, platforms claim to be "neutral," and educational discourses advocate both freedom and performance, a crucial question arises: Can one still orient oneself without being oriented? This is the question addressed by the approach of balanced orientation that I develop in my book L’orientation professionnelle désassignée.
From False Autonomy to Conscious Decision
The autonomy displayed in orientation systems is often superficial. Young people are encouraged to "choose for themselves" and to "trust themselves," while legitimate choices are marked out, fields of study are hierarchized, and the adequacy between profiles and professions is quantified using tests or algorithms.
This staging of decisional freedom masks a more complex reality: that of a subject compelled to adhere to norms without questioning them, to perform in a fog of implicit injunctions, and to remain an "actor" within a pre-defined framework. It is precisely to escape this false equation that I have forged the concept of balanced orientation.
Young people are urged to be simultaneously:
- Aligned and strategic
- Serene and high-performing
- Free and conforming
- Conscious and credulous
- Creative and optimized
- Responsible and infantilized
- Unique and comparable
- In tune with themselves and responsive to market demands
- Slow to reflect and quick to choose
- Audacious and without deviation
- Lucid and cooperative
- Authentic and employable
- In search of meaning and compatible with Excel
- Focused on themselves and available for metrics
The core problem is right here. And nobody talks about it.
Balanced Orientation: A Union of Principles
Unlike paternalistic approaches (which impose for the good) or maternalistic approaches (which protect in the name of care), balanced orientation rejects shortcuts. It does not propose an ideal model but rather a shift in perspective.
It is based on three key principles:
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Decoding Influences Rather Than Masking Them: The role of the guide is to illuminate the underlying logics (cultural, economic, gender-based, status-related, and including those at work within the guidance itself) that influence choices without being explicitly stated.
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Equipping Without Prescribing: Providing benchmarks without confining, offering frameworks for understanding without locking down possibilities.
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Recognizing Conflict as a Space for Construction: In an uncertain world, it is not about reducing complexity but making it understandable and livable.
Not a Method, but a Critical Stance in a Saturated World
Balanced orientation is not a comfortable stance. It requires giving up the illusion of the "right choice," accepting disagreement with certain prescribers, and updating ordinary educational contradictions. But it is the only path to an authentic decision: not the expression of an isolated and critical self, but the lucid appropriation of the conditions that make a choice possible, desirable, and assumable.
🔎 My book offers a detailed analysis of these logics and concrete levers for professionals, parents, and educational institutions.
📘 Read the book for free on Zenodo: 👉 https://zenodo.org/records/15607008
Or in paperback format on Amazon for easier reading: 👉 https://www.amazon.fr/dp/2492214117
